Because of Ayame
by OneAznDragon
Summary: Naruto doesn't get yelled at, he doesn't get chased, he doesn't get attacked. He gets ignored! At least until he meets Ayame, who became first of many. See how Naruto and Ayame learn from each other as they grow up into fine adults. A start of a love story between Ayame & Naruto.
1. Early Years : So Freaking Adorable

**Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto or the characters. This is strictly for entertainment purposes.**

* * *

"One more bowl Oji-san!" cried out a red-haired customer.

"Kushina-sama, are you sure you should be eating this much ramen? This cannot be healthy for your pregnancy; you are about five months into your pregnancy, you know." The ramen chef asks.

"It's fine Teuchi, at most, two bowls once a week should satisfy Kushina's cravings, at least until after the baby is born." The blond-haired man answered with a chuckle.

"Whatever you say, Yondaime-Sama, it's your wife, your child." Teuchi retorts back with a small smile.

"Speaking of child, how is Ayame-chan? Where is she, I haven't seen her today." Kushina asks as she waits for her next bowl.

"Ayame should be getting here soon once she gets out from the academy." Teuchi replies as he places a bowl of salted ramen in front of Kushina.

"Is someone talking about me? I heard my name." a small childish voice calls out as she turns the corner into the bar.

"Ayame-chan!" Kushina screams out as she spun on her stool to greet the little child.

"Kushina-sama, Yondaime-Sama!" Ayame screams back as she runs up to give Kushina a hug.

"Ayame-chan is just so adorable! I love this little girl, so much!" Kushina says as she rubs her cheek on Ayame's cheek, while Ayame just giggles. "Can I keep you!" Kushina asks Ayame. "Minato, Can I keep her?" Kushina asks her husband with a begging puppy-eyed look.

"Can Kushina-sama keep me otousan?" Ayame asks Teuchi as she also gives him the puppy-eyed look.

Minato gives out a small laugh. "You ask me every single time you see Ayame-chan, but I still don't believe that Teuchi would approve."

*Haha* "Not today Ayame, now go get changed, eat and started on your homework Ayame." Teuchi calls out from behind the counter.

"Alright, otousan." Ayame says as she leaves Kushina's side.

"You two really adore one another." Minato says out loud as he sips his sake while Teuchi crosses his arms, closes his eyes and nods with a smile.

"Of course, Ayame is so adorable! She's sweet, kind, she passionate about food, Neh Minato, let's engage Ayame to our baby!" Kushina says with a dreamy-eyed face.

"As much as I would like to even approve of that Kushina-chan, let's allow the children to fall in love with whoever they would like to fall in love with. Besides, what makes you so sure that our child is even a boy?" Minato replies with a thinking look on his face.

"Speaking of the child, have you two decided on names yet?" Teuchi asks as starts to prep his ingredients for the afternoon rush.

"Aiko if female and Naruto if male." Kushina answers before going back into her ramen.

"Naruto?" Teuchi asks as he looks at Kushina.

"Naruto." Kushina confirms with a nodded head.

"Naruto?" Teuchi asks again but this time holds up the fish cake Naruto.

"Naruto!" Kushina confirms once again with a large cheesy grin. "Naruto!" Teuchi calls out as he holds the fishcake out in front of him.

Minato looks at Kushina, then over to Teuchi, back to Kushina and busts out laughing. "Ramen addicts… I swear."

From behind the back curtains, Ayame walks out to the front of the shack. She props up on to the counter next to Kushina with one of her school books in hand, ready for her homework.

"Neh, Ayame-chan, what do you think I'm having, baby boy or baby girl?" Kushina asks as she finishes the last bit of her ramen.

Giving a serious thinking face, Ayame answers with a cheesy smile. "I hope it's a boy." While Teuchi face faults at her answer.

"Oh no young lady, you are only four years old, forty years too young to be thinking about boys." Teuchi says with a protective tone and crossed arms.

"But otousan, if Kushina-sama has a boy, I can marry him, then I will be Kushina-sama's daughter, and I will have two okaa-san and two otousan." Ayame declares as she shyly answers as she plays with the hem of her shirt.

Kushina looked at Ayame, completely shocked, before pulling her into a hug and squealing. "So freaking adorable!" Minato gave them a sincere smile while Teuchi could only look at them while biting his apron and giving a very teary-eyed cry.

* * *

It's been six long depressing years after the night, the strongest of the tailed beast, Kyuubi attacked; claiming many families away from Konohagakure. The Yondaime, Lord Fourth, sacrificed his life to seal the Kyuubi into a small child, Naruto Uzumaki, while Kushina had died giving birth due to stress and implications. At least, that's what was stated by the Third Hokage as he retook his reign as the Sandaime that very same night.

Immediately right after the Sandaime came back into power, Hiruzen Sarutobi, told the village about Naruto and how the Kyuubi was sealed into the orphan by the Yondaime. While people believed in their Yondaime, the fear of the Kyuubi also made people believe that the orphan was also Kyuubi's reincarnate and immediately calling for his death. Forcing Hiruzen to create a law about telling anyone telling the younger generation, about the sealing.

The history in textbooks suggests that the Yondaime died destroying the Kyuubi. To adults, who believe that they knew the truth, made young Naruto's life very difficult; telling their own to keep away from the child or even acknowledging the young child's presence.

* * *

 **Ichiraku Ramen**

It has been six years since the family relocated their bar to a new location since the first one was destroyed during the Kyuubi attack. Everything had to be bought and rebuilt from scratch, but the father-daughter duo is happy they survived with their lives.

Ayame turned eleven this year, she grew up quite a lot for a young child, four-foot-two, sixty pounds, and she always wrapped her hair up within her white bandana to keep it from falling into people's food. A trait she learned from her thirty-seven-year-old widower father.

"Neh, otousan, what do you think Kushina-sama and Minato-sama are doing in heaven?" Ayame asks while she wipes the countertop of the family's small bar.

Teuchi looks up from his vegetable prepping and gives her a soft fatherly look. "Kushina-sama is most likely planning your marriage while Minato-sama is getting bossed around by her."

"I miss them otousan." Ayame answers with a small smile as she shed a single tear for her most favorite couple.

Teuchi takes his sleeve and wipes his eyes. "Stupid tears, some ninja is secretly cutting onions around me again."

"Ayame, can you go set up run to the market and pick up some pork belly, beef, some potatoes and carrots? Do you need me to write you a list?" Teuchi tells her to change the mood.

"I made a mental note, otousan, I'll be back soon."

Leaving the little bar, and walking along the ten-minute route to the local food markets, Ayame greets some of the villagers along the way either with a smile or a small wave of her hand. Coming up to the market and walking through the door, she sees Naruto up close for the first time.

Ayame jumps back outside the door, and she grabs her chest where her heart is. Slowing her breathing, she slowly peeks the corner, making sure she could see him. There he is, six-year-old, sun-kissed blonde hair, three whiskers on each cheek, 116 centimeters, three-foot eight, forty-five pounds, white shirt with a spiral on the back, black shorts, and loose sandals.

"Naruto is Minato-sama miniature replica." She whispers to herself.

While Ayame has seen Naruto around the village, she nor otousan has yet made any form of contact. No opportunities have ever risen. The father-daughter duo is just constantly so busy with running the Ichiraku and Ayame's morning at the academy. "Kushina-sama would be so proud of me!" Ayame mentally cheers to herself as she tried to figure out how to approach Naruto.

"Can I get some help here, obaasan? I need potatoes, carrots and a pound of beef!" Naruto calls out to the front lady. Ayame sees that the lady running the store doesn't even peek from behind her newspaper. She could tell that the older lady wasn't even going to acknowledge Naruto, much less help him.

"Excuse me, could I get ten pound of pork belly, two pounds of beef, five potatoes, and five carrots?" Ayame asks very politely, grabbing the lady's attention as she walks up to the front counter.

The lady closes her newspaper, sees that it's Ayame and gives a warming smile. "Of course Ayame, should I charge it to the bar as usual?"

"Yes, please, and thank you very much." Ayame answers with a small bow as the lady heads to the back to ready her order.

"Man that's so unfair, I been asking for help for five minutes, and she doesn't even raise an eyebrow. Neh, can you help me?" Naruto asks her.

"I don't know, what is it that you need, um…"

"Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki." He tells her with a large grin and shut eyes.

"Ayame, Just Ayame." Ayame introduced with a slight bow.

"I just needed some carrots, potatoes and maybe a little bit of beef. Jiji taught me how to make beef stew, but the lady only seems to answer me when Jiji is around. Neh, I know, can you order it for me?" Naruto asks with a hopeful glance.

"Well, I could Naruto, but wouldn't it be obvious of who it's for if you're standing right here?" Ayame asks in a thinking pose. "How about this, you come with me and I'll split you off some of my ingredients?"

"Really! You'd do that for me!?" Naruto asks, completely flabbergasted.

"Sure, you seem like a nice person, maybe one day, you could be a great friend too."

"And you as well, Ayame, I think we're going to get along quite well." Naruto says with one of the largest grins she's ever seen.

"Here you go Ayame, say hello to your father for me." The lady says as she walks out from the back and hands Ayame the ten pound of pork belly while giving the beef, potatoes, and carrots to Naruto.

"A man always helps a lady! Now get!" the lady says as she sits down, opens up her newspaper and ignores the child once again.

"Thank you very much." Ayame thanks with a small bow before turning and leaving the market.

"Huh!?" Naruto wonders as he leaves the market behind Ayame, confused about what the oba-san meant but also realized that she acknowledges his presence by handing him Ayame's supplies, this made him smile a little inside.

While the market isn't far from the little ramen bar, Ayame decides to make some small talk. "Hey Naruto, have you ever tasted ramen?"

Naruto gives her a confused yet adorable look while holding two separate bags full of ingredients.

"What's ramen?"

Ayame stops for a second to think of the best possible way to describe ramen to the six-year-old. "Ramen is wheat noodle, served in either a meat or fish based broth. Ramen has many toppings, such as sliced pork, seaweed, beef, and even Naruto."

"I'm in ramen? I bet I make ramen delicious!" Naruto exclaims.

Giving a small giggle Ayame looks at Naruto and smiles warmly. "Would you like to try some? I'll personally make you some myself."

"Really! Then it's probably gonna tastes the very best! Dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed.

'Looks like Minato-sama, and acts like Kushina-sama.' Ayame thought as she slowly shakes her head with a small smile. She looks up into the sky and sees an image like Kushina-sama holding up her fingers for victory, before continuing on her way.

"I'm back otousan, and I brought a guest." Ayame tells her father upon reaching the bar.

Teuchi looks over the counter and sees that it is Naruto. "And who might you be little one?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Very nice to meet you!" Naruto says with a small bow.

"Very polite, Naruto. I'm Teuchi, Ayame's father. Welcome to our ramen bar." Teuchi finishes up with a large grin.

"Otousan, Naruto never had ramen before, and I offered to make him his first bowl." Ayame says as she heads behind the bar to drop off the meat to her father so he could prep, before heading back to the front to grab the bags out of Naruto's small hands.

"Oh you did, did you?" Teuchi says as he eyed his daughter. "Well, have a seat Naruto." Teuchi offers as he begins his second half of the food prepping.

The father-daughter duo amusedly watches Naruto struggles to climb one of the bar stools for his seat, and after a minute of struggling, Ayame comes around the bar and helps him up into the stool and pushes him in. "Just patiently wait here."

"Thanks, Ayame!

"Neh, otousan, Naruto tried to get some beef, potatoes, and carrots to make stew, is it ok if we split him off some of our supplies?" Ayame quietly asks her dad, just to make sure Naruto doesn't hear her.

"What happened in the market?" Teuchi questions.

"She refused to acknowledge Naruto." Ayame whispers as she pours the broth into the noodle-based bowl.

"Ok, I'll package him some to go, we'll help him where we can." Teuchi whispers back.

After five minutes if cooking, Ayame brings Naruto his very first bowl of ramen. "Here you go Naruto, one tonkotsu ramen, as promised." Ayame tells him as she turns the corner of the bar with a steaming hot bowl of ramen in her hands before placing it directly in front of him.

"It looks delicious!" Naruto exclaims with a slight drool mark from the left side of his mouth.

It took a second before Naruto felt very embarrassed. He instantly looked straight down and gripped his shorts.

Ayame immediately notices this. "What's wrong?"

"I… I don't know…" Naruto started loud, but whispers. "How to use chopsticks."

Instead of laughing at Naruto, Ayame walks up behind him, steps up onto one of the leg stands of the stool, grabs a pair of chopsticks and correctly places them between his little fingers, properly showing him how to use it. She places her hand directly over Naruto matching hand and places the chopsticks between his fingers.

Naruto immediately blushes at the closeness of Ayame, never receiving interaction from anyone other than the Sandaime. This is a whole new experience for him.

Naruto practices a few times, properly gripping, bringing them together and taking them apart. He stares at the ramen before him and gulps. Slowly moving his hand forward and places the chopsticks in the bowl, pulling a little bit of ramen and places it into his mouth, he slowly slurps a large strand of the noodle. Slowly at first but quickly after every bite until he ate everything in the bowl, even drank the soup.

"Well, how was it?" Ayame asks from behind him.

 _*Sniffles*_ "It's the most amazing thing I have ever tasted." Naruto exclaimed as tears rolled down the side of his face.

"Wait, why are you crying? What's wrong!?" Ayame asks all nervously while Teuchi looks over the counter very confused as well.

"It's just wonderful to finally be noticed." Naruto quietly answers with tears coming out his eyes.

Slightly shaking her head, she jumps up on to the leg stand of the stool and puts her arms around Naruto and pulls him into a hug. "We may not be family, but we can always be friends if you like." Ayame tells him while Teuchi just warmly smiles at the kids.

Nodding his head as he quietly cries and enjoys the comfort of Ayame. 'I finally have my very first friend.'

* * *

 _ **AN**_

 _I think this is a good place for a stopping point. Things are slow just for a little development and character introduction, but I'll be moving things along soon enough. I don't plan on making this an epic story, just enough to get a story out there. The pairing for this is strictly Ayame/Naruto. She will not be fighting, she's strictly his backbone and his motivation, or so to speak._

 _While I feel like I could improve some parts of the story if you have any suggestions how leave a review and maybe I can work with it. I do plan to revise this chapter a few times before the release of the second chapter._

 _I specifically tried to keep everyone's name, and other specifics the same as the series. I don't plan on using those much honorifics in this story, minus the basics. If they are called a certain way in the series, that's what I'll go by here, i.e. Sakura-chan by Naruto, Sasuke-kun by Sakura and so forth._

 _Also, I would like to thank nanashiX for suggesting the grocery market idea. I had a difficult time thinking how Ayame and Naruto could meet for the first time without him just randomly going to eat ramen. Notice I did not use the cliché themes of "beatings, death chasing, dying introductions", and I wanted to try something different. Maybe being 'ignored' is a good change of pace._

 _Have a good one!_


	2. Early Years : Celebration and Friendship

Disclaimer – See Chap 1.

Major **shout out to** **Sam-and-Beans** , for being the first one to review my story after I stopped writing in over a decade and deleted all my childish stories. **" Thank you for your kind words."** **Tokehgecko** , I know you're reading this somewhere, good to hear from you, bro! It's been like 15 years."

* * *

 **Because of Ayame**

* * *

Several months has passed since the first-time Naruto met Ayame, and he loved every minute being around her. She acknowledged his presence, made things fun and made him feel like he's a living human.

After being admitted into the academy, every day after school Naruto could be found at Ichiraku, not that anyone is ever looking for him, but together, they would work on their assignment sent home from class. While unable to keep focus at school, Naruto had no problem listening to Ayame. She made the learning fun, she broke explanations down to where he could understand it, but it also didn't hurt that she bribes him with a personally made bowl of tonkotsu ramen with extra narutos, once all assignments were completed.

Now usually, they would always sit at the last two stools, so that customers could always seat in front of her father. Also, it allowed Ayame to run back and help her father if things became too hectic. That is usually what happens till the evening rush. During the evening rush, Naruto would leave to train. He wanted to be strong, he wanted to be known throughout the Elemental lands, just like his hero, the Yondaime Hokage.

Especially after hearing about the last Great War, and the Kyuubi from class but an even more elaborated version from Ayame, Naruto immediately became a fanboy after the known hero. He wanted to be strong enough to protect his village, Teuchi and Ayame, especially Ayame. Just like the Yondaime!

Naruto's training at the young age of six is very basic, running, push-ups, sit-ups, punches, and kicks. Naruto only knows of basic training due to watching some creepy green man training around the village. Plus, Ayame talks a lot of the older generations of ninjas, whenever a ninja would come in to eat, she would ask them what are good exercise is for a child who wants to learn how to be a ninja. The basics workout is a good start to becoming the best ninja in the world.

Well, that's what would regularly happen, except today, today Ichiraku is closed early for some odd reason and Teuchi never closes early! Once Naruto finishes his homework and Ayame's tonkotsu ramen, he was about get up and leave until the Sandaime walked through the curtains.

"Good evening Naruto, Teuchi." Hiruzen greets the small child.

"Jiji!" Naruto greets back as he runs in for a hug.

"Greetings Lord Third, glad you could make it." Teuchi greeted.

"I wouldn't have missed this; I can deal with more paperwork tomorrow." Hiruzen said with a slight chuckle.

"Make it? Make what?" Naruto asks with confusion. "Is there something going on I don't know about?"

"Well, of course, today's your birthday is it not?" Ayame says as she turns the corner of the bar, holding a small homemade white birthday cake with seven candles lit. Dressed in a casual white short dress with spaghetti strapped laces. She had a white bow tied in her hair and a large smile on her face.

She places the cake on the counter in front of his stool. "Now come make a wish and blow out your candles, and hopefully, it will come true." She says with a warm smile.

Naruto looks at her in shock. He's never had a birthday before. He slowly creeps over to Ayame, pulling her into a hug. He accidentally rubs his teared stained face into her dress. Teuchi and Hiruzen could only warmly look at them.

Climbing on top of his stool, with a little help from Ayame, Naruto stares at his first birthday cake. "I can wish for anything?"

"Anything you want, anything at all, no matter how ridiculous it is, someday, it will come true." Ayame answers.

Teuchi quietly nods with crossed arms, while the Hiruzen smiles with his tobacco pipe.

Naruto crosses his arms, closes his eyes and thinks for a minute. 'I only get one wish; I better make it count.' He opens his eyes and looks over to Ayame, he sees her smiling at him. He knows exactly what he wants. "I wish… Ayame would stay by my side, forever!" he says out loud before closing his eyes and blowing out the candle."

Upon declaration, Teuchi completely face faulted. Ayame turns completely red as she grabs her cheeks, while the Hiruzen chuckles. "You did not have to announce your wish but if you whole-heartily believe, it will come true." Hiruzen explained.

"Who wrote that rule? That's a stupid rule." Naruto states.

"Silly Naruto, you didn't have to wish for that." Ayame says as she reaches behind the counter for his present. 'I would love to stay by your side regardless.' She thinks to herself.

"Why not? I think it's a good wish." He says while crossing his arms and pouting.

"What's this?" Naruto asks as he accepts the rectangular box from Ayame.

"This is what you would consider a present. Normally, you get them on your birthdays." Teuchi explained. "Feel special Naruto, Ayame used her allowance money to buy you this Naruto."

"Well, I didn't pay for all of it, I paid for half and otousan paid the other half." Ayame stated.

Naruto looks at the box before carefully unwrapped the present, carefully peeling the tape.

"You can rip it open Naruto." Ayame tells him.

"I could, but you put effort into this, and this is my first present, I want to save the paper and box too." He states, while completely focusing on making sure there isn't a tear in the paper.

Ayame smiles at his thoughtfulness.

Once completed, he slowly opens the box to find three pairs of orange jumpsuits. "Orange, how did you know it's my favorite color!?" Naruto exclaims very cheerfully.

"Call it, an educated guess." Ayame bashfully says as she thinks about Kushina red hair with Minato yellow hair.

"Now the villagers have to notice me! You can't miss an orange blob running at you! **(1)** Naruto states as he looks at all the wonderful pockets.

"If Maito Gai can do it in bright forest green, you can do it in bright orange." Hiruzen tells him with a laugh.

"That's the weird guy walking around the village with his hands?" Naruto asks.

"Yea, that's the guy, he comes in from time to time with that mask covered boy." Teuchi answers.

"Hatake, Kakashi." Hiruzen tells them. "They do have a weird kind of friendship; they are very strong ninjas." Hiruzen states before thinking about the actual friendship.

"Enough about others, tonight's about Naruto, now whose ready for picture time!" Ayame says as she pulls out her digital camera. "Can you take the pictures, Sandaime-sama?"

The Sandaime smiles before taking the camera. He stands far back while Naruto sat on the stool, Teuchi stood back to his right with a thumbs up and a cheesy grin, Ayame stood in between two stools so they would be equal in height and held a peace sign with her left hand and her right arm over Naruto's neck while Naruto had his left arm over her neck with a peace sign with his right hand.

 ***Click, Snap***

"That's a good photo." Hiruzen stated looking at the camera, looking at the photo of the family.

"Neh, Ayame." He says as he spun around on his stool and stares right into her eyes. "We'll always be friends, right?" He shyly asks her.

Ayame looks him right in the eyes, leans in and touches her forehead to his and warmly smiles at him. "Of course, now and forever!"

 ***Click, Snap***

"Pinky promise?" Naruto shyly asks with his pinky out.

"Pinky promise!" she answers by latching her pinky and touching her thumb with his. "Sealed with a kiss!" She finishes with a kiss to his right cheek. ***Click, Snap*** Where she saw the light pinkish blush on his cheek before he tries to follow up. "Sealed with a kiss", he says as he leans in for her left cheek only to fall off the stool and kiss her on the lips instead, ***Click, Snap*** as he landed face first on the ground. Making her jump back, away from the stool, eyes wide in shock, touching her lips as she feels her face turn the brighter shade of a cherry.

"Ah ta ta. That's gonna leave a mark." Naruto whines a little as he rubs his nose once he sat up.

 ***Click, Snap***

"Oh Teuchi, this is a great one." Hiruzen says as shows Teuchi the photos. Captured at the right moment of where Naruto kissed Ayame on the lips. Hiruzen looks over and could see the large river tears coming down Teuchi's eyes.

"To be young again." Hiruzen says with a small chuckle.

* * *

 **Flash Forward eight months**

"Today is a great day! We're out from the academy, we get to relax, and Ayame is by my side." Naruto declares out loud, not that anyone actually cares. Wearing the orange jumpsuit Ayame got him earlier in the year.

"Naruto, you do know we have errands to run, right?" Ayame asks him, as they continue their path in the early afternoon.

"Of course, order and pick up food and supplies for the stall, cleaning supplies for my apartment, return your cookbooks from the library." Naruto says as he thinks if there is anything else that he's missing.

"What else?" Ayame asks as she looks to her left, telling Naruto that there's something missing.

"No clue." Naruto answers as he tilts his head and crosses his arms in confusion.

"Your physical exam, Naruto, Sandaime-sama demands one from you, especially now, since you been avoiding getting one done when you joined the academy. So, the physical exam is actually the main thing we are taking care of, right after the library, since it's along the way." Ayame explained.

"But that's not my fault Ayame, every time I go try to get a check-up, no one pays any attention to me, even in this orange jumpsuit you got me. I'm, like, still invisible." Naruto explains with a small frown as they get closer to the library.

"I understand Naruto, and so does Sandaime-sama. Which is why he gave me these." Ayame says as she pulls out two scrolls from her yellow dress's pocket.

"What's in those scrolls?" he wonders.

"I don't know, he says just hand the orange one to the receptionist, and if they still don't give you any attention then open the blue one myself." She explains.

"Oh must be a prank, I like pranks." Naruto guesses as he hammered his right fist into his left palm.

"We shall see. Now, let's continue on our way." Ayame calls out walking past him, cheerfully greeting some of the villagers on their route.

Dropping off her culinary cookbooks at the library before heading into the Konoha Hospital, Ayame, and notices that everyone is rushing back and forth. Trying to get the sick better and the better out, whereas some people were waiting in the waiting area. Walking up to the receptionist, Naruto and Ayame stood patiently, waiting for the lady to look up.

It took a minute but she did look up, she saw Ayame standing there. "Can I help you, child?" She asks before grabbing a clipboard with some paper."

"Yes, I'm here so I could get a physical exam for Naruto." Ayame explains to the receptionist.

She stands up, looks over the counter to see Naruto staring right back into her eyes. "Unfortunately, the doctor to do the physical is not in today. Please check back tomorrow." She explains.

"Umm, no can do, Sandaime explained to me that he wants it done today." Ayame retorts.

"Well, we heard nothing about it, so there's nothing that could be done." She answers back.

Pulling out the orange scrolls from her pocket and hands it to the receptionist, once she opens it and completely pales as the blood drains from her face. "We'll be right with you shortly. Please go sit in the waiting room." She says as she gets up to look for the head doctor.

"Thank you very much." Ayame says as she slightly bows.

"Yea thanks, lady." Naruto says out loud.

"Be polite, Naruto." Ayame whispers to him.

"Uh, thanks, pretty lady?" Naruto says out loud again, making the lady blush as she walks away a little faster.

One hour passes and we find Naruto sitting upside down in the chair, completely bored out of his mind. While Ayame is currently catching up on Konoha times. But she is also getting bored. Getting up and walking back to the receptionist. "How much longer do you think it will take before Naruto could get his physical done?" Ayame politely asks.

"The current doctor should be with you shortly." She says but as Ayame looks around, it is no longer busy. Doctors and nurses seem to be just standing around, chatting with one another. Getting a little fed up, Ayame pulls out the second blue scroll and opens it. Out poofs a lot of smoke before a large wave of chakra washed over the hospital and from under the smoke, stood the Sandaime. Everyone seems to be in shock once the Sandaime started talking.

"Where is my hospital staff?" He angrily commands.

Everyone stared before realizing who it is and immediately bowed.

"Sandaime-sama!" Everyone greeted at the same time.

"Ayame, how long have you been waiting here?" He kindly asks her.

"Over an hour Sandaime-sama." She answers with a slight bow. "Yea Jiji, I'm restless and bored, and hungry, and I did I mention bored?" Naruto tells him.

"Why is this?" He asks out loud.

"Sorry Sandaime-sama, I had other patients, but I'll get it done immediately." The doctor says as he ran to the front.

"See that it does, or else…" Hiruzen commands as he narrows his eyes at the doctor as he let his threat hang.

The doctor leads Naruto to the back, while Ayame and the Sandaime follow him to an empty room.

Naruto's physical exam took all but twenty minutes, checking his weight, blood, health, and anything associated to his life. Perfect health, perfect eyesight, under average in height, average weight, slightly more muscle than the average seven-year-old but that would-be a given seeing as Naruto started training many months ago.

"Sorry for the delay, Sandaime-sama." The doctor apologized as they left the physical room. They eventually passed another room where the name Sasuke Uchiha stood out on one of the folders.

"Hey, I know him, he's from my class. He doesn't talk to me either but what's wrong with him Jiji?" Naruto asked the Sandaime.

"I'm unsure, maybe just the flu." Hiruzen lies, knowing that Naruto does not need to hear about the Uchiha massacre.

"Well, let's find out." Naruto exclaims as he opens the door to the room, walking right into the boy.

Hiruzen could not catch him and Ayame is just oblivious to the situation and just stands in the doorway.

"Hey! Did you get a boo-boo and cry about it!" Hiruzen could only facepalm at Naruto's antics, while Ayame could only give out a small giggle.

Hiruzen looks at Sasuke from the doorway. The boy looked terribly pale, eyes bloodshot red from lack of sleep and possibly crying. An IV is attached to his left arm. He sees that the boy slowly turns his head to Naruto and starts to tear up.

"My brother killed my family…" Sasuke quietly mumbles.

"Wow, no wonder you look so dead. I wish I knew how you feel but I never had a family." Naruto replies as he pulls up a chair closer to the bed and jumps into the seat. "But how about we become friends, turn ourselves into some badass ninjas and take back honor for your family?" Naruto exclaims.

Sasuke looks at the boy in front of him all wide-eyed before slowly pushing himself up and stares at the boy.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meetcha, Dattebayo!" Naruto says with a fist out in between them.

Sasuke studies the boy that sat in front of him. "Uchiha Sasuke" Sasuke calls out as he pounds fist with Naruto.

"Oh and this is my Ayame. She makes the best ramen and gives the best hugs!" Naruto points to Ayame as she gives a slight bow with a light blush.

Sasuke looks at her before looking back over to Naruto and wonders what Naruto is talking about. "Hugs?"

"Yep, the very best! Her hugs are warm, they make you feel like you're wanted, and they take all the weight off your shoulders. I love them!" Naruto explains.

Sasuke blushes as he shyly looks at her before back down to the hospital sheets.

Ayame lets out a small giggle before walking up to the boy and sits on the bed before pulling him into a hug.

At first, Sasuke tensed up rather quickly, but after a minute or two, his arms quickly wrapped up from behind her and tears just start coming out from his eyes. Slowly at first, but after another minute people from down the hallway could hear the loud sounds of a crying child.

"Feel better?" Ayame asks as she feels him calm down.

Sasuke quietly nods his head.

"See!? The best hugs!" Naruto exclaims while Sasuke could only nod again in agreement. Letting Sasuke go, Ayame stands up and looks at Sasuke in the eyes. "You're going to be fine." She warmly tells him.

"Neh, how would you like to come spend some time with us? Maybe get you out of this lonely hospital room?" Naruto asks him as he looks around the room.

"I believe that should be possible." Hiruzen says as he summons the doctor that took Naruto's physical to give a look over on Sasuke.

After giving Sasuke a clean bill of health, but still a little concerned about his mental health, Sasuke leaves with his two new friends.

* * *

 **Author Note's**

I believe this is a good stopping point as I continue to plan out my next sets of scene. While I am making this up as I go, the direction I choose to head, has to lead to these specific scenes which will show the most interaction of Fluff between Naruto / Ayame.

I believe that the interaction at Naruto's bday is pretty decent. I would enjoy seeing something like this in an episode with any female lead.

Notice how I choose this gift from Ayame? Explained his fascination with the orange jumpsuit he only ever wore in the first series. Something different for a change.

 **Quick Review Answer** , someone brought up a question about Ayame's age. Going by Naruto wiki, Ayame's age to everyone is roughly only 4 – 5 years. In the opening series, she's 17 compared to Naruto's 12 – 13 age. So going back to Naruto's 6 she would be 10, but 11 by Feb 14, estimated age anyways.

Also, I'm trying to keep the age of the children the same to the Wiki. Naruto's - 7, Sasuke's - 7 Ayame's - 11


	3. Early Years : Thanks Sasuke

**Disclaimer – See Chap 1.**

Thanks to **Sam-and-Beans** for the beta. I know you got your work cut out for you.

* * *

 **Because of Ayame**

* * *

"Hey Sasuke, you do know when Ayame's birthday is right?" Naruto asks his friend.

"Yes, why wouldn't I?" Sasuke questions.

"What do you mean why wouldn't you? You hate birthdays, you hate social gatherings, and you hate people outside of me, Ayame, Ayame's pops and the Sandaime. Do you even like the Sandaime?" Naruto wildly questions as he waves his left hand in the air while he points his right finger at Sasuke.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Sasuke asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Dude, we're eight years old, we got lucky to get into the ninja program early when we were six. Just because we got in the program early does not mean we get to become ninjas early." Naruto explains.

"Is there a point to this?" Sasuke asks in confusion.

"Yes, we're going to be on a team, and being on a team we need to trust our teammates. To trust people, you are going to need to like them."

"Fine… I'll try to go and like some of our classmates." Sasuke sheepishly mumbles.

"So back to my original question. Do you know Ayame birthday?" Naruto seriously questions as he crosses his arms. "Let me rephrase that, do you like Ayame enough to know her birthday?"

Sasuke pondered hard for a moment, "For a civilian, I like Ayame enough to know her birthday. Ayame's birthday falls on valentine's day."

"Good! What will you be getting her for her birthday?"

"I don't know yet. Nothing's really caught my eye for me to get as a present." Sasuke answers as he looks away and scratches his cheek with his finger.

"Well, you've been friends with her now for over a year now, what do you actually know about Ayame?" Naruto questions.

Sasuke looks at Naruto and really thinks about his question. "Oh my Kami, you are right. I don't know anything about Ayame at all."

"Well, lucky for you, I know a lot about my Ayame." Naruto gloats.

"Your Ayame…?"

"Well, of course, she's my first friend, my best friend, and my favorite friend."

"Wait, you like Ayame more than me?"

"Baka! How could you even compare yourself to her? If you're here at this level, Ayame's up here at this level." Naruto explains with his hands as he shifted up and down like a weight scale.

Sasuke gives a very cheshire cat-like smile. "Oh, I get it." He shifts really close to Naruto and pokes him in the cheek a few times. "You like Ayame."

Naruto quickly narrows his eyes to Sasuke. "The hell you talking about?"

"Admit it, you have feelings for Ayame." Sasuke says as he continues to poke Naruto's cheeks.

"Fine, maybe I have a little crush on Ayame; but if you say a word about it to her, I'll rip you apart." Naruto threatens with his narrowed eyes but with a light pinkish blush on his cheeks.

Sasuke gave out a large belly laugh. "Right, whatever you say Naruto, now tell me about Ayame's likes and wants so I can get her a decent present."

"Ayame will be turning thirteen this Valentine's Day. Her favorite flower is the pinkish white peonies, which embody romance and prosperity. Her favorite color is the light sky blue. Favorite fruit is white peach, favorite food would be sashimi, specifically salmon. Ayame's roughly five foot even, weighs somewhere between 82 to 90 lb. Her goal is to be a master chef once she gets older and to take over her father's job so he can retire." Naruto casually explains.

"So you know about her, but you don't know what she would like as a birthday gift, useful Naruto, very useful." Sasuke grumbles as he walks away.

"Whatever Sasuke. Well, I need to go plan my gift, go find one for yourself." Naruto calls out as he leaves in the direction of the Hokage's tower.

* * *

Today is the day where the academy lets everyone out of school. So the streets are more packed than usual. Kids are playing and running in the streets, vendors are in the open selling their products, and Ichiraku is busy with hungry people. Plus, it's the only time Naruto could sneak off to get his present ready for Ayame.

Naruto's trip to the Hokage tower is quick and easy. Getting into the tower is even quicker since no one ever tries to stop him. He's pretty sure Jiji's bodyguards still keep a heavy set of eyes on him, but that wouldn't stop him from seeing the Hokage today.

Walking right past the secretary, he notices that she doesn't even bat an eyelash from the paperwork on her desk as he skips up the stairs into the large chamber.

"I swear Jiji, if I was sent to assassinate you, you'd probably die. No one stopped me from getting up here." Naruto calls out from the hallway as he strolls into the office.

Hiruzen gives out a chuckle as he continues to read the paper in his hand. "You're two hundred years too early to try and assassinate me Naruto. How can I help you today?"

"Two things actually. First, I'm here to collect my weekly allowance." Naruto says with one finger shown.

"And the second?" Hiruzen asks as he puts the paper down.

"I'd like to hire a ninja, specifically a kunoichi." Naruto says with two fingers shown.

"Oh? Do you now?" Hiruzen says, taking a puff out of his tobacco pipe. "Why?"

"Recon." Naruto explains.

"Okay Naruto, I'm listening. Why do you need a kunoichi for recon?"

"In exactly one month, I need to get Ayame a pendant locket for her birthday. But shops don't pay me any attention, and I'm a child so they won't take me seriously. I need to hire a kunoichi that can take me to a jewelry shop and give me a female's insight." Naruto explains.

"Hmm, I see where you're going with this." Hiruzen thinks for a second. "Okay Naruto, I'll accept your mission, free of charge. Let's go now so that I can take a breather from the paperwork." Hiruzen says as he stands up and stretches.

Naruto hears his bones crack. "You're not a kunoichi and are you sure you can even move? Sounds like the more you move, the more your bones are going to turn to dust." Naruto says as he winces.

"I'll be fine, just a little stiff from sitting all day, and besides, this way it'll be free." Hiruzen says as he heads towards the doorway.

Naruto nods and follows along.

* * *

A few hours later in the day, after walking through many locations and stores, Hiruzen and Naruto stop for a short break at one of the local eatery stands.

"Naruto, we've been through six different jewelry shops, none of them carried anything you are looking for. How about you describe to me what you are looking for so I can have an idea of where to take you next?" Hiruzen asks as he strokes his beard.

"Okay. Well, I'm looking for something rectangular or oval with a swiss blue gemstone on the outside. It needs to open up to hold one picture on one side and a quote on another. If there's an intricate design on the outer shell, that works too." Naruto carefully explains.

"No wonder you can't find what you are looking for. Something like that must be made custom ordered at one of two locations, none of which are in Konoha. The first one is in Iwagakure no Sato, earth country, and we're not exactly on good terms with Iwagakure. While the second is Sunagakure, wind country and we're on good terms with them." Hiruzen explains a little as he continues to think about the possibilities. "How much money did you managed to save up?"

Naruto closes his eyes and taps his temple in a thinking matter. "Roughly forty-two hundred ryo."

"How on earth did you manage to save forty-two hundred ryo?" Hiruzen gasps.

"Would you believe me if I said I sell half naked pictures of Sasuke on weekends and his unmentionables to my classmates?" Naruto mischievously answers.

"Naruto" Sandaime sternly eyes him.

"I'm kidding, let me break it down. My weekly allowance from you is two hundred and fifty ryo. That means once a month, I earn one thousand in free ryo. My apartment is only three hundred ryo a month. Electric and water is included in the rent. But while I have no washer and dryer, I just do all that at Sasuke's place, which is only ten minutes away. On average I spend roughly seventy-five ryo weekly on food and groceries. That leaves me with four-hundred to save. Multiply that by one year and I managed to save up forty-eight hundred. The remaining spare money goes to the tip with Ayame's dad. He hates accepting my money so I have to sneak it in the tip jar." Naruto explains

Hiruzen is flabbergasted. "Where did you learn to do math like that and save to this degree?"

"Through Ayame, duh, she explained that a good ninja will know basic math; But a great ninja can use that math to everyday life, hence money savings." Naruto states, matter-of-factly.

Still complete shocked, Hiruzen manages to come up with an idea. "Come Naruto, we have one last jewelry stop to go to."

"Where's that at Jiji." Naruto asks as he stands up and starts following the Sandaime.

"The Hyuuga Manor" Hiruzen stated.

"What's a Hyuuga?" Naruto says in a confused manner as he follows along.

After traveling for about fifteen minutes, they come up to a large gate with two ninjas at the side.

"Greetings Sandaime-sama. How can we be of assistance?" One ninja asks as they bow.

"Greetings, I'm looking for Hiashi." Hiruzen states.

"Ah, Lord Hiashi, please, allow me to take you to him." One ninja asks as they led the way inside.

"Jiji, they have pupil-less eyes, why is that?" Naruto asks from behind the Sandaime.

"They are of the Hyuuga clan, a bloodline clan whose eyes can penetrate through any solid objects or obstructions." Hiruzen explained.

"Ohhh…" Naruto's completely amazed now. "How bad would it be if they were perverts?"

Hiruzen gives a small snicker.

"If we were perverts, no one would ever know." The Hyuuga ninja whispers as he bends low and turns around to Naruto.

"Oh, I like him; he has a sense of humor." Naruto laughs as he points at the young Hyuuga ninja.

"Thank you for your kind words." The ninja says as he turns around to continue on their way.

Upon reaching the main building, the young ninja bows down on to one knee. "Lord Hiashi, Sandaime-sama and a young gentleman is here to see you."

"Very well, back to your post." A voice calls out as the sliding door opens and the ninja disappears in a puff of smoke. "How can I help you, Sandaime-sama?" The older man says with a bow.

"Naruto, this is Hyuuga Hiashi. He's the head of a family that partly deals in mining for gemstones. Only Hyuuga villagers with no ninja skill in his or her bloodline are miners, while the other side are ninjas." Hiruzen explains to Naruto before looking back at Hiashi. "Hiashi, this is Uzumaki Naruto. I was wondering, do you still have lapidary connections over in Suna or Iwaga that still could create custom gemstone jewelry?" Hiruzen asks.

"We should, my family still does provide the gemstones for both locations. What exactly are you looking for?" Hiashi asks the young blonde child.

"Hello, Mr. H." If the nickname caught Hiashi off guard, Hiashi did not visibly show it. "I'm looking for something rectangular or oval with a swiss blue gemstone on the outside. It needs to open up to hold one picture on one side and a quote on another, like a locket, but if there's an intricate design on the outer shell, that works too." Naruto explains to Hiashi. "I guess it could be considered as a custom pendant locket?"

Hiashi thought about it for a moment as he looks at Naruto. Naruto can't exactly tell if Mr. H is looking at him or not, so he just stares back at the man, hoping he is. "Please come in and look at this catalogue, if you can point out designs you like, I could reach out to a colleague and have it custom made for you."

Naruto jumps excitedly before regaining his composure and walking inside the main building.

Together, the three of them sat in Hiashi's main room. Naruto carefully looks through the catalog of designs. He picks the chain, the gem, the cut, the shell, the shape, and even the way the locket opened. He also pulls out something from his pocket and slides it over to Hiashi. "I want these two pictures on the locket." he also wrote two different quotes on the back of the pictures, one for each picture.

"Hmm. It can be done, but it's not going to be cheap." From this layout you've shown me, plus delivery time, you're going to be looking at fifty-nine hundred ryo." Hiashi states as he tallies up the prices.

"Ouch. Would you take a down payment Mr. H?" Naruto hopefully asks. "Half now, half when I receive the item?"

Hiashi ponders about it for a moment. "I believe we could come to an arrangement." Hiashi says with a completely stoic face. "Let me write up the agreement and I'll let you be on your way."

"Please!" Naruto asks with a large smile as he pulls out his Gama-chan, toad wallet. He pulls out twenty-nine-fifty and places it on the table.

Roughly four minutes later, a contract is provided. Naruto looks it over. It states that half of the payment will be paid once the contract is signed while the second half of payment is due once the item is received. Nothing too complicated. Naruto signs his name in a neat handwriting dates it then slides it back to Hiashi.

"Looks like everything is in order, I shall contact you weekly to let you know the progress. Pleasure doing business with you, young Naruto." Hiashi says as he holds out his hand.

"Likewise Mr. H!" Naruto says with a smile as he grips Hiashi's hand and shakes. "You know, you are a lot nicer than you look Mr. H."

"Thank you, I think." Hiashi replies as he pulls his hand back and coughs into his fist.

"Naruto, go on and be on your way. I think Ayame should be finishing up the evening shift." Sandaime tells him.

"Thanks Jiji, Mr. H" As soon as Naruto takes his bow and heads out the door, Hiruzen looks over to Hiashi. "Charge the remaining fee to me."

"Of course Sandaime-sama. I had a feeling you would have done something like this." Hiashi states as he draws up a second contract. "He has Kushina's personality."

"Personality of Kushina, but the looks and intellectual mind of Minato. When he described how he saved his money in full detail, I was beyond speechless and it told me how overly active his mind is. But I have a feeling it's also due to Ayame." Hiruzen explains as he signs the contract.

"Ayame? As in the daughter of Teuchi of Ichiraku ramen?" Hiashi questions as he staples the contracts together.

"The very same. You know Kushina was smitten with the child, right?" Hiruzen asks.

"I had no idea. All I remember was Kushina loved ramen." Hiashi says.

"That's how they met. Kushina loved the child as if she was her own. She even suggested to Minato to arrange a marriage for Naruto and Ayame, but Minato never took her seriously. I feel like Kushina fated them to meet that first time anyways." Hiruzen says as he packed his pipe.

"You don't say. Is this her in the photo?" Hiashi asks as he taps on one of the photos.

Hiruzen he took a drag of his pipe. "I do not know."

* * *

A month quickly passed, and Naruto gets excited about what's to come. "Did you find her gift?" Naruto whispers to Sasuke while doing homework at Ichiraku.

"Of course. Did you?" Sasuke whispers back as he continues to do his homework.

"Yea, I picked it up yesterday evening after we split up from training." Naruto states as he looks over Sasuke's right shoulder for the answer to his problem. "What did you get her?"

"I'll show you tomorrow." Sasuke answers as he leans his shoulder forward to block his paper.

"Come on! Don't be a dick." Naruto comments as he tries to look low, only to be hit on top of the head with a wooden spoon as Ayame turns the corner of the bar. "Do your own homework Naruto."

"Damn." Naruto winces as he rubs his head a few times, trying to massage the lump away, only to be hit again in the exact same spot. "No cursing!"

"Double damn!" He whispers as he rubs the spot harder.

"I heard that!" Ayame calls from the back.

"Hn, dumbass." Sasuke quietly laughs.

As Ayame turns the corner again, she hits Sasuke on top of the head with the same wooden spoon. "What did I just say, Sasuke."

"Sorry." Sasuke regretfully apologizes.

"Are we sure she isn't a kunoichi!?" Naruto sourly mumbles as he got back to his homework while still painfully ignoring the bump on his head. Sasuke could only give a painful nod.

* * *

The following day, Naruto woke up extremely early. To surprise Ayame first thing in the morning, he had to be up before anyone else. He already managed to blackmail Sasuke into helping by having photos of the boy playing in a bubble bath with Flappy the rubber duck and its unsinkable pirate ship, Woody. 'Ah, the advantages to having a key to your friend's place.' Naruto quietly giggled as he thought about the entire situation.

 ***Ring***

"Hey, you awake yet?" Naruto asks over the phone.

"Do I even have a choice?" Sasuke grumbles over the line as he yawns from the lack of sleep.

"Well you did, I asked, you said no. That was your choice. Now meet me at my place in ten. We got work to do!" Naruto said as he hangs up the phone with a click.

"Why did I even become friends with him?" Sasuke cries out loud as he hangs up his end.

 ***Click***

Quickly getting off his bed and getting ready, Sasuke rushes out the door over to Naruto place. He finds Naruto standing outside with a couple of bundles of rope wrapped over his shoulders.

"Ok, how are we doing this." Sasuke asks skeptically, not liking this idea.

"All the supplies are already on top of the monument. We've got roughly three hours to get in, do the job, and get out before we're caught. Think of it as a mission." Naruto explained as he leads the way.

Sasuke can only grumble as he follows along.

* * *

While Naruto and Sasuke are busy doing their own thing, Ayame got up to do hers. Today is her birthday, which isn't any more important that it falls on Valentine's Day. It actually makes the day even less special. But today's the day she could finally, for the first time ever, make chocolate. While she knows she's no professional, she knows how to follow the instructions inside culinary books well enough to make food. At least for Naruto. For Sasuke she already bought a box and pre-wrapped it. She cheated that system well.

Tying her hair back into a ponytail, she gives a mental shout to get started.

* * *

"You have got to be shitting me!" Sasuke said as they stand on top of the Hokage monument.

"What? You afraid of height?" Naruto asks as he ties another rope in place.

"No… but I am afraid of dying." Sasuke says as he looks over the head monument.

"Well… you're gonna learn today! Dattebayo!" Naruto said as he ties rope onto the handle of the bucket of paint. "Now, get to it! Once we're done, the photos and negatives are yours!" Naruto calls out as he runs to the second head.

 ***Gulp*** Sasuke looks over again. "It's for a good cause, it's for a good cause." He repeated to himself.

* * *

 ***Ding***

Ayame pulls the oven open and grabs the tray with some oven mittens. "Smells delicious! I deserve a pat on the back!" She tells herself.

'An hour and forty-five minutes, not bad, still leaves me some time to get ready for school.' She tells herself as she looks at the clock on the wall.

While the chocolate is cooling off, she begins to clean the kitchen up. 'Not as many dishes as I expected.'

Quickly cleaning up the dishes, bagging the chocolate and placing them on the counter, Ayame runs to shower before getting ready for school.

* * *

"AND we're finished! Job well done, Sasuke, let's clean up and scram before the sun gets over the horizon." Naruto tells him as he runs to stack the paint from his hiding spot.

"Thirty minutes to run home AND shower!? Cutting it close, aren't we?" Sasuke asks as he runs down the path of the monument.

"Nah, it's never too late for a good prank." Naruto says with a grin. "I'll meet you at the academy." Naruto tells him as he splits off towards his apartment.

* * *

 ***Snap* *Crackle* *Pop***

Hiruzen's old bones pop and groan as he wakes from his slumber. 'It's getting harder and harder to get up these days.' Hiruzen silently thought as he let out a small yawn as he rubs the sleep from his eyes. Smacking his jaw a few times as he pushes himself off the bed towards the window.

Pushing it open, Hiruzen looks over his villages daily to remind himself why he took over the mantle as leader once again. He looks around and sees that his villagers are all laughing, chuckling, and some even fall over holding his or her stomach.

Looking around, Hiruzen slowly blinks once,

Hiruzen slowly blinks twice,

Hiruzen slowly blinks three times, before the situation had even begun to register. "NARUTO!" Hiruzen shouts in fury as he clenches the window sill, his body trembling, his face turning completely red with anger and steam rising from his ears.

There! Right in front of him, on the Hokage monument, were three painted Geishas. White face, red lips, red eyeshadow, red eyebrows, with the red words Happy on Hashirama's hitai-ate, Birthday on Tobirama's headgear. On Hiruzen's face it's a little different. While the face is painted white, the lips and eyebrows are painted red, the left eye is painted with a horizontal line while the right is painted in an upwards arrow making him look like he is winking or flirting, he's unsure of which.

Hiruzen takes a deep breath once and he slowly releases it. He takes a second deep breath, and again, slowly releases it. Once he calms himself completely, Hiruzen realizes that he could only be astonished at how much planning this would require. To be able to pull it off as well? And not get caught!?

Hiruzen glares at the Hokage monument hard! The third monument winks right back.

Hiruzen lets out a chuckle, then a laugh. Before he knows it, he's laughing so hard, tears are coming out.

"Yes, one of the many reasons why I love this village!" Hiruzen tells himself once he regains his composure.

* * *

"Happy Birthday Ayame!"

"Happy Birthday! Be good but not too good!"

"Congrats on surviving another year!"

"Happy Thirteen!"

Some of Ayame's friends call out to her as they walk past her and Naruto on the way to school.

"It's a beautiful day! The sun is shining and it's Ayame's birthday. There's three Geisha's on the monument." Naruto tells the world.

Ayame blinks hard, trying to understand what he was talking about before looking in the general direction of the monument and she starts laughing uncontrollably.

"Thank you for the birthday wish Naruto. You deserve a prize for that." She pulls out Naruto's homemade chocolate after she calms down. "Happy valentine's day! I made it myself."

Naruto looks at Ayame. *Blink* "I've never gotten chocolate before." Naruto says as he graciously accepts.

He holds the bag in front of his eyes. He notices they look like a teardrop. "Looks delicious!"

"It's called a chocolate kiss." Ayame explains as Naruto picked one out to place into his mouth, savoring it's content. Naruto places his hand on his cheek in pure bliss.

"So good."

"Morning Naruto. Morning Ayame." Sasuke greets as he catches up with them.

"Morning Sasuke. Here, happy Valentine's day." Ayame greets back as she offers him a different bag of chocolate.

"No, thank you, Ayame, I'm not a sweets person." Sasuke declines.

"Oh… Okay…" Ayame answers, completely forgetting that the boy's a sour kind of person.

"Happy birthday, Ayame!" Sasuke tells her.

"Thanks Sasuke."

"Let's get this day over with!" Naruto cheerfully. "We have a birthday to celebrate!"

Between the three large grins, today is going to be a great day!

* * *

 ***Ding Dong***

The doorbell rings as Naruto, dressed black shorts and a white tee and Sasuke, wearing black shorts and navy blue tee stand in front of Ayame's door. "I hate get togethers…!" Sasuke mumbles as he fidgets Ayame's present in his hands.

"You can go home, you know." Naruto blandly states.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Sasuke teases.

Naruto looks at Sasuke and grins.

Ayame opens the door with a smile, dressed in a short light blue dress with a red ribbon tied in her hair, and a small red watch. Naruto had to pick his jaw up from the floor. Sasuke elbows him before stepping inside before Naruto.

"Thanks for having us over Ayame. I'm sure Naruto feels the same." Sasuke tells her as he hands a white semi big box, wrapped with red ribbon.

Ayame looks at him for a short moment before saying. "Naruto, if you're not going to come in, I'm closing the door."

"I'm coming, I'm coming, no need to rush." Naruto sheepishly replies as he walks past her.

Walking into the living room, he notices that the dining room table is currently all set with silverware and food.

"I don't know if you ever had a home cooked meal but I tried my best to make all of tonight's dishes." Ayame tells them as she brings out the last dish of the night.

"First we have honey soy sauce chicken. Marinated with slight bit of sake soy sauce and honey, baked in the oven. Next we have salmon fried rice, basic fried rice mixed in with baked salmon and our soup shall be sour soup, mixed with pineapple and tomatoes. Now go wash your hands and let's get ready for some dinner."

"Where's pops?" Naruto asks as he makes his way towards the kitchen.

"Right here Naruto." Teuchi's voice calls out as he makes his way down the stairs. "Good evening boys. Didn't see you two at the bar today."

"We figured it would have been best if we went home and bathed before coming over." Sasuke politely answered as he takes a seat at the table.

"Good choice!" Ayame giggles her reply.

They all take their respective seats and begin to dig in. Once dinner finishes up, Ayame grabs Sasuke's present and starts to open the package.

Ayame carefully eyes the box, feeling the weight and slowly starts to undo the ribbon. "It's not that heavy."

"I hope it isn't either, at least not for you." Sasuke answers.

Opening the box, she notices three different knives, all different lengths. "Oh! A knife set, this is perfect!"

"I figured you would love something like this, especially if you want to be a chef as you get older."

"Good choice Sasuke!" Naruto says as he admires the present.

Pulling out a small box from his pockets, Naruto places the box in front of her. Ayame eyes the blue wrapped box in front of her, curious what it could be. "It took some time to get everything together but I'm happy with the way it came out. Good job if I do say so myself."

Slowly unwrapping the wrapping paper, Ayame slowly opens the box to find a pendant, one with a swiss blue gemstone right on the front. The pendant's design around the stone were small swirls, hung on a small silver chain.

"It's gorgeous! Where did you come up the money for this Naruto? This must have cost you a fortune." Ayame tells him as she continues to eye the pendant from the front to the back in slight shock.

Naruto walks up to her from behind and whispers in her left ear. "Press on the latch, Ayame."

Confused by what he meant, she pressed down on the latch, right side of the pendant and it opened up like a small book. Ayame's eyes slowly started to get watery, her breathing became rasp, and she brought her right hand to cover her mouth, just as the tears flowed down the side of her face.

"Okaa-san!"

Teuchi immediately looks at Ayame and Naruto in complete shock. He walks up to her, grabs her hand holding the pendant and looks at the picture.

"Naruto, how did you ever find a photo of Ayame's mother? Everything we have of her, was destroyed during the rampage of the Kyuubi."

"Well, I heard a rumor from the market lady, when I asked her if she had any photos of your kaa-san, she pointed me in the direction of the library and records. So I spent an entire month in the library, going through old articles. I eventually found one the day you originally opened the first Ichiraku restaurant before the Kyuubi attack."

Ayame stands up, runs up to Naruto and grabs him into a tight hug. "Naruto, thank you! You do not know how much this means to me. During the attack, otousan and I ran for shelter, never getting the chance to grab any sort of valuables. All we have left is the memory of her."

"So that's why you've been skipping out on training lately. If you asked, I would have helped Naruto!" Sasuke says as he thinks back.

"I know you would have, but it was something I just had to do myself." He tells Sasuke before looking over to Ayame. "Ayame, you've done so much for me after I met you, for once I wanted to do something special for you." Naruto tells her as he holds her close.

While holding onto Naruto, she places a small kiss on his forehead. "Thank you, Naruto."

She looks at her mom's face, it's a small face with brown hair and brown eyes. It's been a very long time since she last seen a photo of her okaasan. She notices the quote on one side, "Always watching over you!" Ayame couldn't help but to lightly tear up once again.

She notices that the quote center had a back end to it. She flips the locket over and on the back end of the quote is another picture. One she took a few years back, it was her and Naruto at his first birthday. She had her arm over him and his arm over her, both giving peace signs. He quoted this one with, "We'll always be together!" She gives a soft smile and mentally herself. 'Yes, now and forever.'

"Will you help me put it on Naruto?" Ayame quietly asks him.

"Of course Ayame." Naruto quietly replies as he positions himself behind her.

"Thanks Naruto, you made my present look like shit." Sasuke says changing the entire mood of the room.

"Thanks Sasuke, way ruin the moment." Naruto softly answers as he clasps the necklace around her neck together.

"Sorry." Sasuke sadly apologize.

* * *

 **AN**

Following Naruto's birthday from the previous chapter, I decided to do this one, one month before our actual valentine day. I'm still slowly progressing things along age wise until we reach canon, story flow should be a little easier on bringing these two together once Naruto is proper age.

While Ayame's now the proper age to start thinking about boys, Naruto is still too young to know anything about females. He may have a baby crush on her but does not mean he understands anything about wanting a female companionship. Things he did in this chapter is only because she's been there for him. Not because he sees her as wife potential.

Please **Critique / Review** , I would love to know where I could improve in my writing style. I still do feel like I do write like an elementary student. And it lets me know if you're actually enjoying my story or not. I like hearing from the fans of the story. Thanks!


	4. Early Years : Missions and Comfort

**Disclaimer - See chapter 1**

The chapter is unbeta-ed, but I read and reread multiple of times while adding corrections and changes. If I have missed anything that needs to be changed, please let me know.

* * *

"Did you get all the supplies?" Konoha's resident blond-haired prankster asked.

"After all the pranks we pull, why do continuously doubt me? A baffled black-hair prankster asks as he gives Naruto a deadpan glare.

"It does not hurt to check, you big baby. Yeesh." Naruto looks away to avoid Sasuke deadpan glare.

"I'm just pulling your leg, no need to get your panties twisted, anyways, my ends completed, how's your side? Did you finish everything on your end?" His raven-haired friend asked back.

"But, of course, my sets of supplies are way easier to gather than yours." Naruto answers as he pulls out a map. "Remember, you're here at this building, and I'm here at this one." Naruto simultaneously points at the two builds across from one another. "Teachers decorated these buildings here." Naruto points at four more buildings. "Stadium's going to be here." Naruto points at the stadium on the map. "Audience will be sitting here, and students will be here. Everything starts at six, we need to be ready to start by five."

"Naruto, I remember the plan. You don't have to repeat it again." Sasuke tells him as he rolls his eyes.

"In the famous words of Leonard Snart, "Make the plan. Execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan."

"Who is this Leonard Snart to be giving you such ridiculous quotes!?" Sasuke questions with a raised eyebrow.

"Some character from some comics I have seen from earlier this year when I was searching for Ayame's okaasan."

"You're an oddball, do you know that Naruto?" Sasuke blandly tells him.

"Yes, but I'm fun." Naruto replies with the same tone.

"Yes, yes, but still an oddball, but back to the plan."

"Right, the plans, Ayame will be in this line here, when there is two people in front of her, the moment that first person is called, we cut the banner straps then we light em up, exactly right after we light them and we cheer, we cheer like hell, we cheer like our lives depended on it. We cheer till we turn blue and faint, or till she acknowledges us, either or works for me. What do you think?" Naruto explains.

"You know if this backfires, you're probably going to get a couple of new lumps in that thick skull of yours, right?"

"I'd probably get a couple of lumps regardless, so Sasuke, how about we go out with a bang!" Naruto gave a fox-like grin.

Sasuke fiercely returns the very same grin and answers to his best friend. "We're going to be in so much trouble."

Giving a nod of confirmation, Naruto replies a simple statement. "No shit!"

* * *

Exactly five pm the next day, Naruto and Sasuke met up at their designated points. Two dual-story buildings roughly sixty feet apart. Each carrying two different set of supplies. Naruto carried a bow and arrows, a rolled-up banner, couple of poles, and rope. One could never have enough rope, while Sasuke brought only a large wooden board and a pole.

"Ready?" Naruto asks as he held out his fist while staring at the buildings in front of them.

"Let's get wild." Sasuke replies as he pounds his fist into Naruto and stares at Naruto's opposite building.

Splitting off into each other's building, Naruto and Sasuke quickly rush their way to the stairs and up to the rooftops. Naruto's took a few minutes longer due to the supplies he's carrying. Once Naruto reached the top, Naruto notices that Sasuke is already setting his wooden board up. He notices Sasuke's supplies was also set up from the previous day, all set up and ready to be used. Naruto places his stuff on the ground, rolls out the end of banner and took the bow off his shoulder then ties a part of the banner to rope which is also tied to the arrow.

Naruto took his bow and took aim. He looks through the tip of the arrow and let his grip go as his arrow flies over to the wooden board. The arrow tied with the rope which held onto the banner made its way over to Sasuke and hit the board with a thump.

Over on Sasuke's end, Sasuke quickly takes the rope's end to pull so he could get his side of the banner onto his building. Sasuke watches Naruto gives him a thumb up before tying his end of the banner on to the pole. They both lay the banner down in its socket and get ready for the next phase of Naruto's ingenious plan.

Sasuke looks off the rooftop and notices all the people gathering for the ceremony. People were taking their seats as it quickly begins to get full. He sees Naruto realigning his supplies from the previous day. He should be doing the same.

Naruto looks at the equipment in front of him, then at the crowd. Students were already starting to line up as the parents were taking their seats.

He quickly grabs the lighter from his pockets and gets into position. He looks at Sasuke, Sasuke looks at him back. Each giving one another a grin and a thumbs up. "It's go time." Naruto mouths before looking back forward to the crowd.

"Families of Konoha, Welcome!" Hiruzen's voice roars. "Today, Konoha Academy welcome's you all!" Hiruzen scans the audiences. "For the latest graduation of Konohagakure. Every year, we come to celebrate the latest students into adulthood. Unlike ninjas who receives a hitai-ate at twelve, stating that are now officially adults in the eyes of the village, we present a degree for those of the civilian life. While most of you adults know, children of the civilian life go to the academy for an extra year, just so they could be a little more equipped in a ninja filled world. Please, let us congratulate these new young adults!"

Everyone in the audience's cheers, alongside the children who are all about to graduate.

"As I call your name, please, step up and get your degree."

Naruto and Sasuke has be quick, they quickly had to find Ayame in the group of adults so they could be ready to set their next plan into motion.

Naruto scans for his Ayame, he sees her about twenty-five students in line behind the first child. He holds up two fingers on one hand and five on the other, to show Sasuke, what positions she is in. Just to make sure he knows as well.

Sasuke scans the line up to twenty students, as other names were called and see Ayame, gave Naruto a nod before getting into position, each grabbing one of the poles they previously tied their banner to.

* * *

Ayame is nervous, like the first date, sweaty palms nervous. For one, she hasn't see Naruto or Sasuke all day. Which scares her, a lot.

A day without seeing Naruto is a day for disasters, the Prank brothers, and some people calls them. Of course, Naruto is the one making all the ridiculous plans and Sasuke attacks those plans with such effect. She remembers when Naruto explained to her about how Sasuke helped with the Hokage monument. Took days to clean off all the paint. She felt bad for the group of genin that and to scrub the three Hokage on Hokage monuments.

As she moves closer up the line towards the Sandaime, she felt even more nervous. Her legs got shaky, she felt her stomach drop, got harder to breathe. 'Great, I'm having a nervous breakdown.' She quickly tries to controls her breathing, but she became as stiff as a rock. Until she took a step and her pendant bounces back on to her chest.

While stiff as a rock, she moves her hands up to her chest and fiddles with the birthday pendant Naruto got for her a few months back. Thinking about how sweet the situation was and how she now has a clearer picture of her mother once again, allowed herself to calm down faster than before.

Quickly, Ayame relaxes as she straightens out her sky-blue dress, she readjusts the white bow tie in her hair. She looks up into the sky, warmly smiles and wonders. 'Kushina-sama, okaasan, are you proud of me?'

The light seems to twinkle through the clouds as if it is answering her.

'Just three more people. I can do this!' Ayame thought with a face of full determination.

* * *

'Two more people.' Naruto and Sasuke thought as he watches the line. They both stood up and rushes up to the rope in between the buildings. Quickly they cut the rope that held the banner bundled up, and let the banner roll. As the banner rolls to the ground, it uncovers the two kanji symbols, 'Congratulations Ayame!' Quickly following the next step is Naruto using the lighter, Naruto lit the eight fireworks in front of him, watching as the spark burn the flint that eventually flows its way into its firework. Shooting off into the sky as Ayame's name is about to be called with perfect timing. Naruto took his last step as he grabbed a flagpole set previously by Sasuke and waved the white flag with the Kanji symbol 'Congratulations' in the air as he screams out Ayame's name.

"Ayame!" Naruto screamed into the megaphone also previously set up by Sasuke, Naruto was so glad Sasuke figure out a better way to amplify his voice.

* * *

As soon as Sasuke cut his wire to let the single banner roll to the ground with Naruto, Sasuke quickly ran to his set of fireworks and did a katon no jutsu without inhaling his breath all the way in. He lightly blew out a small steady stream and whips his head in one direction to light every single flint. Satisfied with his jutsu, he rushes to grab his white flag with the Kanji for Ayame and waves it, just as Naruto did his.

"Ayame!" Screaming into his megaphone also previously set up by him. He gave himself a mental pat on the back as he thought up a better idea than Naruto for a change.

* * *

Ayame stood in line. Her name is about to be called next. She watches as one of her classmates just accept his degree.

"Ayame!" She hears in the background.

She turns to her right and she immediately became dumbfounded, her eyes became wide, her mouth gape, her shoulder slumped. "How do you two keep doing this!" she whispers to herself.

"Ayame!" Hiruzen calls her name as he amusedly watched the entire situation happening. From the moment, they stood up on the rooftop, he saw everything, the bow and arrow, the banner cutting/rolling, and even the fireworks going off.

She shyly walks up to the Sandaime and just before she grazes the degree in his hands, she stops, only to hear fireworks going off. "Ayame!" The boys call out. Everyone turns their heads as the fire goes off only to see the two boys waving their hard-white flags with Kanji.

Everyone who turned their heads started to cheer alongside the boys. As if the energy from Naruto and Sasuke flowed into them. With the heavy number of fireworks going off and the center banner, and they flag waving. They only thing they could do is cheer louder.

"Ayame!" Naruto and Sasuke call out in unison, while the audience cheers with a passion. Teuchi also in the crowd also tries his hardest to cheer for his daughter. If someone looked at him, they would have seen tear rivers flowing down his eyes. Teuchi's so proud to have such an amazing daughter.

Ayame couldn't help but give a smile, regardless if she is shy, stunned or embarrassed about the entire situation.

"They're a fun bunch, aren't they?" Sandaime asks her as she graciously accepts her degree.

Giving her Hokage a happy nod of her head, she turns with a smile. She jumps and throws out her hand into a sweet winning pose and waves happily to the boys.

The day's ceremony ends with Ayame taking photos with her friends, hugs, lots of hellos and goodbyes. Her favorite photo of the day was when she took one with Naruto and Sasuke. They stood to each other's back. Sasuke's right arm stretched out giving the victory pose while Naruto stood to his back with his left arm stretched out as well giving his victory sign. Both boys gave a very large accomplished grin with closed eyes while Ayame held her elbows on top of their heads and chin resting in the palms of her hands giving a wide smile with closed eyes.

* * *

 **Flash Forward**

* * *

The years flew by quickly but faster for many of the younger generations. Naruto and Sasuke were luckily enough to join the same class once again since the beginning of their ninja school year. Six years ago, Naruto and Sasuke joined the academy, but four years ago Naruto joined the ninja program with Sasuke still by his side. At the start of the ninja program, Naruto and Sasuke got the chance to meet many of the clan's heir and heiress. Hiashi's daughter Hinata, Inuzuka's heir, Kiba, Ino-shika-cho's heir(s) and heiress(es), Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji and a few others.

Even though Naruto and Sasuke joined the ninja program early; the Sandaime did not allow anyone to graduate until after they are at least twelve years of age. Apparently, there were too many issues with children graduating early and having early psychological issues, Sasuke's brother, Itachi being the biggest example.

Today's exam day, Naruto and Sasuke are now twelve years old. They are now old enough to graduate and become shinobis at least Sasuke is. Sasuke can wake up in time for class while Naruto ended up oversleeping and waking up a bit late for school just like most of his school days.

After Ayame graduated and is no longer going to the academy while working full time with her father, she no longer takes walks with Naruto to class, which still makes Naruto slightly sad. Normally Ayame wakes Naruto up in case if he ever sleeps in; guess he misses waking up to seeing her smiling face, sometimes angry depending on the time of the month. At least there's still every day after school that he could see her wonderful face.

Today, Naruto strolls into class and notices that many students were already in their seats from the start of the year. He notices Sasuke sitting in the front with two free spots to the right of him which Naruto assumes one is saved just for him. He looks around the classroom and sees a few of the classmates. A pineapple head shape boy, Shikamaru, a boy with weird marking on his face and a dog, Kiba, purple-haired female with eyes pupil-less eyes, Hinata, and many others.

He watches everyone eye him as he walks over to Sasuke in the front.

"How the hell you sleep in? We didn't do any training yesterday." Sasuke asks him as he watches Naruto takes a seat next to him.

"You know as well as I do that Ayame normally wakes me up in case I oversleep." Naruto grumbles as he lays his head on the desk.

"She's gonna wooden spoon you for all your tardiness like last year." Sasuke tells him as he leans back with his arms behind his head.

"You know, I wonder, how come we never try to run from her when she's mad?" Naruto asks as he doesn't even bother to lift his head off the desk.

"We did try, we both got our lumps quadrupled by the next morning."

Naruto groans in memories of his lumped head. "Instead of being a civilian, Ayame could command a great spy network. Eyes and ears all throughout Konoha, there's no use in hiding from her." Sasuke could only nod in agreement as he still held his eyes closed while leaned back with his arms behind his head.

"Sup fellas." Kiba calls out as he walks up to them.

Sasuke opened one of his eyes to look at the boy while Naruto turns his head to his left cheek to look at the boy as well.

"Inuzuka" Sasuke asks.

"Sup Kiba." Naruto groans from the desk.

"Hey, I heard a rumor that it was you two that pulled off that amazing fireworks and banner prank during the civilian graduation a few years back."

Naruto grins without even looking up. "I don't recall what you are talking about."

"Sure you do, the timing was supposedly amazing and how did you manage to get fireworks at that age?" He answers.

"No one denies an Uchiha." Sasuke answers as he closes his one eye basically confirming Kiba's rumor.

Naruto quickly jabs Sasuke's right side. "Don't get cocky, lord Uchiha and thanks for giving out information, lord Uchiha." Naruto mockingly tells him.

Sasuke jumps at the jab, quickly rubbing his side from the immediate pain. "I mean, I don't know what you're talking about." Sasuke corrects himself as he narrows his eyes at Naruto.

Suddenly, the pencils on top of the desks started shaking. Random things start to fall off the desk and on to the floor.

"Aye, you feel that?" Kiba asks

"Aww shit, here they come." Naruto tells them as he sits up and leans back like Sasuke.

"I'm sitting with him!" calls out a voice.

"No, I am!" Calls out another voice.

"And here they are, Ino and Sakura." The pineapple haired boy said.

"He's mine!" the pink haired girl screams as she rushes through the door.

"NO, he's MINE!" the purple clothed, blond haired girl replies as she walks past her.

Both girls' notices Naruto sitting in their spot. "Move Naruto!" they yell together.

"For what Sakura-chan?" Completely ignoring Ino.

"I'm going to sit next to Sasuke-kun today." Sakura says matter-of-factly as she clasps her hands together and gains hearts for eyes.

"No, I am!" Ino says as she turns towards Sakura.

Naruto looks at the girls, then to Sasuke, then to his seat position. "Ladies, Ladies. Calm your tempers and let's resolve this like the adults we're about to be."

Warning bells immediately went off inside Sasuke's head, he did not like that tone coming from Naruto.

Naruto quickly stood up and pulled Sasuke's seat cushion towards the center. "There! A seat on either side!"

Sasuke evilly looks at Naruto. "You're a complete dick!" Sasuke calls out as Ino and Sakura each took a seat on either side of Sasuke.

Naruto only gives a Cheshire cat-like smile before working his way to the top row for the other extra seat.

"Sasuke-kun, let's go on a date!" Sakura asks him.

"What's a date?" Naruto asks as he turns around towards Sakura.

"A date is something when two people go out to eat and do stuff together." Sakura says. "With their bodies." Ino finishes as she squirms with both girls having hearts for eyeballs.

"If that's all a date is, Sasuke and I have dates all the time."

"EHHH!" The whole classroom screams out as they jump back in shock, some face faults in disgust.

"What? We eat every day after school and we train our bodies. Is that what you people do not consider a date?" Naruto asks out loud as he is completely confused.

"Baka…" Sasuke calls out. "A date is generally between a male and female." Sasuke explains. "Generally…"

"Ah! That makes more sense, you two should have explained it better." Naruto tells Sakura and Ino. "Aye Sakura-chan, let's go on a date." Naruto asks with a smile.

"Eww no! Why would I go out with someone clan less orphan like you when I could have someone like Sasuke-kun." Sakura says as she turns to Sasuke with hearts in her eyes.

Naruto looks at her for a second. "That was harsh, Sakura-chan. You could have just said no. No needed to be a bitch about it." Naruto sighed as he continued to walk up the stairs towards the purple haired Hyuga.

"Sasuke-kun, let's go on a date, yea?" Sakura asks with still hearts in her eyes.

Sasuke looks at her for a moment, a little-pissed off. "Why would I go on a date with a clanless girl like you? You're pathetic, attacking Naruto just because he's an orphan. You forget I'm an orphan as well." Sasuke tells her as he turns forward, clasps his hands together and leans into them as he tries to calm himself down.

Sakura could only whimper on how harsh it sounded coming from Sasuke.

Ino looks at Sakura from behind Sasuke. "You messed up badly forehead." She whispers to her as she cups her lips with her hand, hoping Sasuke wouldn't hear her. "You know Sasuke and Naruto are extremely close friends, and by insulting Naruto, you insult Sasuke too. You better go apologie to Naruto later." Ino explains.

"Good morning Hinata." Naruto greets her as she felt a little annoyed.

"Good morning Naruto-kun, are you feeling ok?" Hinata quietly whispers as she turns slightly pink from the interaction with Naruto.

"I'm ok." Naruto asks her as he takes a seat next to her to lean back and shuts his eyes to think.

"That was a bit harsh coming from Haruno-san, why did you even ask her out on a date, I don't see you holding any sort of romantic interest in her?" Hinata asks in slight confusion.

"Oh, is that what a date is for?" Naruto opens his eyes to looks at Hinata in shock.

Hinata looks at Naruto and gives a small, shy nod.

"Are you ready for this exam?" Naruto asks her to change the mood.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She tells him with some determination.

Just before Naruto decides to start another conversation, Naruto notices Iruka-sensei walks in through the classroom door with Mizuki-sensei to explain what will be on the exam and how the procedure will be going on.

"Greeting students, everyone here today will be taking the final exam separately. Mizuki-sensei and I will be watching you, students, one by one." Iruka looks at everyone's faces before continuing. "Mizuki is now handing out envelopes, you are not to talk about it to your classmates. This is your own personal mission. You will be evaluated on how you perform these tasks. If we catch wind that you shared it with your classmate, you will automatically fail."

Naruto watches Iruka-sensei sternly tells everyone.

"Follow your mission to the best of your ability. You have until the end of the class day. You are to begin of your choosing. Good luck and make Konoha proud." With that Iruka and Mizuki walked out the classroom once missions were all passed out.

"Good luck Hinata!" Naruto tells her as he stands up and walks down the steps to Sasuke.

"You too, Naruto-kun." She answers back.

Naruto slowly walks down to Sasuke. He holds out a fist at him. Sasuke pounds the first right back. "Let's get wild!" Gives Naruto an equally shared grin. "Let's meet up at Ayame's at the end of the day."

"Of course, got to break it to Ayame that we're adults!" Naruto tells him.

Ino and Sakura look at each other. 'Who's this Ayame?' They both separately thought.

"Naruto, I want to apologize for what I said earlier." Sakura tells him as she stands up to give a slight apologizing bow.

"No worries Sakura-chan. Water under the bridge." Naruto tells her as he waves it off. "Good luck with your exam Sakura-chan." Naruto calls out as he walks up to the window and jumps.

Naruto quickly runs outside towards Ichiraku for a quick bowl of ramen before starting his mission. Naruto notices that Ayame and Teuchi just started their prepping for the day.

"Ayame!" Naruto calls out as he enters the bar.

"Oh morning Naruto, aren't you supposed to be doing your exam right now? You're not skipping out are you!?" Ayame questions.

"No, I just got my mission for the exam. Everyone's given something different. I figured I get something to eat before looking at it to start." Naruto explains as he takes a seat on the bar stool.

"That's very adult-like of you Naruto." Ayame tells him as she reaches over and pinches his cheek.

"Aww stop it." He weakly swats her hand away as he tries to hide the pink under his cheeks from her compliment.

Quickly whipping up a bowl for him, she watches as Naruto opens his envelope up to read his mission.

Sneak into Hokage Tower

Find and retrieve forbidden scroll without getting caught.

Meet up at South forest to be evaluated.

Requirements, must use Henge, Kawarimi and bunshin no jutsu at least once.

"Forbidden scroll huh, that sounds fishy." Ayame asks as she stood behind him with a bowl of tonkotsu ramen.

"Ayame." He whines. "You're not supposed to know about it."

"Oh? And why not?" She asks as she places a hand on her hip and looks at him, telling him to explain.

"Iruka-sensei says, and I quote "you are not to talk about it to your classmates. This is your own personal mission.""

"Naruto, I am not your classmate, that makes me an exception to the rule." Ayame grins at him with shut eyes.

Naruto looks at her in shock as he thought about it. "You are so smart, Ayame!"

She quickly gives a smiling nod as she takes a seat next to him. "I'd go ask Sandaime about that one. I recall some older shinobis mentioning about how the forbidden scroll contains many dangerous jutsus. It's especially dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands."

After a few minutes of talking and inhaling his ramen, he pulls out one thousand yen and places it on the counter. "I'm off to Hokage tower." He tells her as she jumps off the stool. Ayame got off hers as well and gives him a warm hug. "Good luck Naruto." Naruto couldn't tell but Ayame slightly blushes at the interaction.

Naruto notices how much they grew in the last four years. He's now four ft seven while she's standing at five foot two at the age of seventeen. "I'll come back soon." Naruto tells her as he lets go and rushes out the bar towards Hokage tower.

"Ahem!" Teuchi coughs into his hand.

"Otousan, how long you been standing there?" Ayame nervously asked as sweat drops quickly came down her forehead to her chin.

"Long enough, get back to work!" Teuchi commands her.

* * *

Naruto walks right past all the guards at the tower, and up the staircase "Jiji, I have a problem!" Naruto yells from the stairwell into the chamber.

"Naruto, I'm old, not deaf. So, lower your voice before you give me a heart attack." Hiruzen blandly tells him as he stamps a scroll. "What seems to be the problem?" Hiruzen asks as he rolls up the scroll to grab another scroll.

"Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if the forbidden scroll would suddenly disappear?"

Hiruzen immediately looks up at Naruto with a serious face and answers in a more serious tone than Naruto is used to. "Hypothetically answering, I'd find out who did it and charge them with treason."

"So what could treason be consisted of?" Naruto shyly asks as he looks away and scratches his arm.

"Banishment, execution, varies on what's been done exactly. Now you want to tell me what is going on Naruto."

"You know about the genin exam right?" Naruto asks as he walks up to take a seat.

"Yes, Iruka is doing things a bit different these past few years. This year I recall him sending out each student doing their own type of genin missions. Where are you going with this?" Hiruzen asks.

"So, do you think he would do something as treachery as sending an academy student to go steal the forbidden scroll do you?" Naruto wonders.

Hiruzen looks at Naruto for a moment before leaning back into his seat to take a puff from his tobacco pipe. "Iruka wouldn't scheme something to this degree, he's a loyal Konoha through and through, but someone else could be. Is the forbidden scroll your mission Naruto?"

"Mhmm, Ayame saw my mission list and suggested I talked to you about this first. Especially, if I decide to follow through with the exam." Naruto explains as he hands the envelope to the Sandaime.

"Ayame has a good head on her shoulders." Hiruzen states as he looks over the envelope. "You do what your exam states Naruto, I'll take care of the rest." Hiruzen tells him as he hands back the envelope while standing up to grab a scroll. "Here you go, one fake forbidden scroll." Hiruzen rummages around till he finds a similar three-foot scroll to give to Naruto.

"Where exactly are you to meet for delivery?" Hiruzen asks.

"Unclear, the note only said somewhere south forest." Naruto answers.

"I see, well, get going. You don't want to let your examiner wait too long." Hiruzen tells Naruto as he rushes Naruto out the door.

"Thanks Jiji!" Naruto tells him as he runs out the chamber as he ties the scroll to his back.

Once Naruto was out of sight, Hiruzen snaps his fingers, four ninjas, each wearing a different animal shape porcelain masks appears in a puff of smoke. "Sir!" All four ninja answers as they kneeled to the ground.

"Follow him and keep him safe, I want whomever it is captured and brought in for questioning. Allow no harm to Naruto!" Hiruzen commands. "Also stay out of Naruto's view and review his abilities."

"Hai!" All four answers as they disappear in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Naruto rushes along the rooftops with a large green and white scroll tied to his back. Slightly curious about the entire situation. 'I wonder what Jiji has planned." Naruto thinks to himself as he continues his route towards the south forest. Completely missing the four ninjas following him.

* * *

Hiruzen walks out of Hokage tower and calls his armed forces with a burst of his chakra.

"Sir!" answers an estimated fifteen of Hiruzen's shinobi force appears.

"Uzumaki Naruto has stolen the forbidden scroll. I want him found and brought in for questioning! He is not to be harm! Is that clear!" Hiruzen commands with a thunderous voice.

"Hai!" answered the shinobi before disappearing in a wave of smoke.

* * *

Five miles outside the south village gate deeper towards the forest, Naruto sits down and waits for his examiner, curiously looking at the scroll. 'I wonder what exactly is written in here.' Naruto thinks to himself.

"No, I should not look!"

'But it can't hurt. It is a fake scroll.'

"Oh joy, I'm talking to myself!"

'Just open the damn thing!'

"Well, I convinced myself!" Naruto calls out into the wild before opening the scroll. "Let's see, hey there's a note."

"Naruto!" a voice calls out before Naruto could open the note.

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto answers.

In a puff of smoke, Iruka appears in front of Naruto, looking down at the boy. "Why did you steal the forbidden scroll?"

"Because this is my mission exam, is it not?" Naruto questions his teacher.

"No, your mission should have been something as simple as henging into Ayame and bring me a bowl of her special ramen. Or even transforming yourself into a different clan heir and stealing their undergarments."

Naruto immediately looks at his sensei with a raised eyebrow. "Iruka-sensei, are you a closet pervert." Naruto laughs as he points.

"No, but it would have made the mission that more serious, who in their right mind would not be embarrassed about stealing undergarments? If they would have been caught, that would have been dangerous on both ends." Iruka explains

"Hmm." Naruto thought as he closes his eyes to think. "That actually makes sense."

"But not everyone would have got these types of mission. It all varies as E-rank missions."

"I just followed my envelope, Iruka-sensei." Naruto tells his sensei as he pulls out the envelope and hands it to him.

Iruka immediately looks at the card and finds out that Naruto isn't lying. "Mizuki!" Iruka dangerously voice.

"Correct! I knew I could trust you to find Naruto, Iruka!" Mizuki calls out, "You always seem to easily find the boy during every prank session." Mizuki tells them. "Good job Naruto! I knew you would have been able to steal the scroll!" Mizuki calls out as he jumps on to one of the larger branches.

"Eh? Why me? Out of every heir and heiress, why pick me?" Naruto questions as he straps the scroll on his back before standing next to Iruka.

"Because everyone ignores you. No one gives a shit about you. I knew very well you would be able to bypass the tower's security and guards. All due to the Kyuubi."

"The Kyuubi?" Naruto asks as he crosses his arms and tilts his head.

"Quiet Mizuki!" Iruka dangerously threatens.

"Have you never wondered why everyone avoids you Naruto? No one likes you Naruto nor do they care for you. It's impossible to destroy such a powerful entity, which is why people rather just avoid you, just because you are the Kyuubi reincarnated!" Mizuki tells him stunning the boy in his place.

Iruka pulls out a kunai as Mizuki slowly reaches towards his back for a larger shuriken.

"Naruto, you are not the Kyuubi. Do not listen to him." Iruka tells him as he jumps in front of the boy. Iruka quickly notices that the life inside of Naruto's eyes turn dull and pale.

"You don't have the time to be worrying about the Kyuubi Iruka." Mizuki yells as he jumps to Iruka.

"Naruto, snap out of it!" Iruka screams as he shouts at Naruto.

* * *

Inside Naruto's mind, he began recalling all the events throughout his entire life. Every time he walked somewhere, asked for help, in the stores. They all ignored him like he wasn't even alive. 'If you ignore something long enough, maybe it'll disappear.'

Naruto notices people walk past him. When they bumped into him, they don't even look in his direction. Children see him but don't even come up to him. They back away and move in the opposite direction.

* * *

Ayame felt something wrong. Her chest felt heavy as her heart felt like it dropped. She needed to be near Naruto, for something. "Something is wrong otousan." She voices out as she looks out the bar and gazes into the distance. "I never felt this way before."

"Whatever is going on with Naruto, it'll be ok. Have faith in him Ayame, and stay busy to keep your mind occupied." Teuchi tells her as he continues the evening prep work.

"Ok otousan." She tells him as she gets back to work. "Be careful Naruto." She whispers.

* * *

As Iruka is currently fighting Mizuki, Naruto is busy internally fighting with himself. He's currently sitting on the floor inside his empty mind. Clutching his knees as the little boy in him shrank little by little.

It's his fault Iruka's parents died, it's his fault many of the villager's families died, it's his fault everyone's sad, it's his fault for everything. Everyone fears him to the point everyone would avoid him. Naruto latched out as he grew up, hoping to get some sort of acknowledgment. To be heard, to be known, to be seen… Seen as a child, seen as a person, seen as a **human**.

"Naruto, snap out of it!" Naruto slightly hears in the distance.

"Naruto, I know you are hurting, but snap out of it and move!" The voice calls out again.

* * *

"It's no use, Iruka!" Mizuki tells him. "The Kyuubi will die for all its sins!" Mizuki says as he punches Iruka in the stomach. Bruise and battered, Iruka falls forward in pain as he loses all the air in his body.

Mizuki is not in any better shape. He groans as he slowly creeps up towards Naruto. He doesn't notice Iruka trying to push himself off the floor. Both men are low on chakra, unable to do any types of jutsus.

"First, I'll kill you, you damn fox, and then I'll kill that ramen girl you seemed to be attached to." Mizuki evilly laughs.

* * *

"I'll kill that ramen girl you seemed to be attached to." a different voice echoes inside his head.

Naruto looks above him and calls out her name. "Ayame!" Naruto let go of his knees and pushes him off the floor, Naruto rages at the threat. Naruto closes his eyes and takes a deep breath with his small body.

Immediately upon opening them, his real body begins to regain the life back in his eyes. "You threaten my Ayame! I'm going to have to hurt you now!" He looks over to Iruka. "Hundred folds!"

Mizuki looks at him and evilly laughs as he covers his eyes with one hand. "I would love to see you try!"

Naruto bends forward just a little as he quickly dashes towards Mizuki. Quickly running through a couple of hand seals, he sets up a jutsu. "Bunshin no jutsu." A puff of smoke appears to have his body split in two. While one bunshin lays on the floor, dying.

While catching Mizuki off guard, the one Naruto that jumps over Mizuki quickly lifts the scroll from his back, twists his body in midair and pummels Mizuki with the scroll. Following the motion as Mizuki bends forward, Naruto flips his body to heel kick Mizuki on the back of the head, immediate dropping him to the floor.

As Naruto lands on the ground with his two feet. "Take that!" Naruto shouts as he turns around to help Iruka. After about a step, a hand grabs on to his shoulder and spins him around. Mizuki quickly uppercuts Naruto on the chin. Making him fly backward landing towards Iruka.

"If that's all you got, then you really should die, Kyuubi." Mizuki calls out.

Naruto quickly sits up and spits out the blood-forming inside his mouth. "If that's all you got, you really should quit being a ninja. Ayame hits harder than you." Naruto tells him as he wipes the blood coming out his mouth to his chin.

Naruto stands up and dashes towards Mizuki again, forming new hand seals.

"I will not fall for it twice!" Mizuki screams as he lunges at Naruto.

"Kawarimi! Che…" Mizuki notices as he felt his punch connect with the scroll.

Flying out from a puff of smoke, a deformed Naruto flies towards Mizuki. He throws a kunai at him effectively splitting into two. Mizuki ducks forward while keeping his eyes on the bunshin only to turn around to hear another puff of smoke behind him. As Mizuki turns around, Naruto uppercuts him right in the jaw. Using the momentum of the uppercut, and while Mizuki's head is stuck upward, Naruto uses his left fist to launch forward to weakly hit Mizuki's face once again.

Mizuki stood his ground as his arms dangle in front of him, while Naruto lands on the ground gasping for air. Naruto notices that his attacks are barely phasing Mizuki.

"Now you really done it. I'm pissed!" Mizuki shouts.

"I'm curious about how you'll feel after I kick your ass as an academy student." Naruto mumbles as he continues to gasp for air.

Unknown to Mizuki, while he was battling Naruto, Iruka was catching his breath and restoring his chakra. Hoping it would have given them the advantage. Constant attacks should stop Mizuki from restoring any chakra.

Naruto felt a hand again grab his shoulder. Not taking a chance this time he quickly spins around and punches the body behind him. Making Iruka fall over and groan in pain.

"What the hell Naruto, I'm on your side." Iruka groans out.

"Heh, sorry Iruka-sensei!" Naruto bashfully apologizes as he scratches the back of his head as he looks at his sensei.

Mizuki notices the situation and quickly took advantage and quickly rushes to give Naruto a right hook Naruto while kicking Iruka in the face making him flip backward towards Naruto.

"Two for the price of one. I love a great deal!" Mizuki mockingly shouts at them as he creates the cross ram hand seals. "Kage bunshin no Jutsu!" out poofs two more Mizuki(s).

Iruka stood up to eye the disadvantage and ends up creating the same hand seals. Iruka pushes some decent amount of chakra into the seals and one more of Iruka stood next to him.

"Three on three. Naruto, this is a kage bunshin, one effective hit should dispel them." Iruka calmly tells his student.

"The jutsu looks simple enough to do, let me try!" Naruto tells them as he does the two cross ram symbol and pours his entire chakra into the seal. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Immediately upon creation, Iruka and Mizuki are stun at the creation of the jutsu. Out poofs over a hundreds of Naruto spread out among the forest. Each one in a different position as they look over at the two adults.

"Oh, you're so screwed." Everyone of Naruto's bunshin voices together and equally grinning.

Screams were heard throughout the village as Naruto pummels Mizuki as he begged for mercy.

* * *

Naruto and Iruka slowly walked towards the south gate as they equally dragged a beaten up, bruised face Mizuki towards the village as the sun is setting. Giving the two heroes a warm welcome back towards the village.

"Great job Naruto!" Naruto hears his Jiji tell him as he is greeted by his Hokage. "Great job to you too, Iruka." With a snap of his fingers, Hiruzen summons four of his ninjas. Take Mizuki to T&I chambers to see Ibuki. Naruto, go see Ayame, she's waiting for you at your place. I'll take it from here." Hiruzen commands.

"Thanks, Jiji." Naruto exhaustingly tells him as he slowly heads in the direction of his apartment.

Hiruzen waits until Naruto is out of hearing distance before calling out the team of ninja that were supposed to protect him. With a snap of his fingers, four ninjas in porcelain masks appeared knelt to the ground.

"Report!" Hiruzen commands.

"Uzumaki Naruto is fit to become a genin. He showed basic taijutsu, along with a high chakra usage upon creating the kage bunshin, effectively summoning a little over three hundred kage bunshins. Naruto also used three academy jutsu at least once, kawarimi, bunshin and henge. Basic strategy for its usage. I strongly recommend him to pass the academy exam." The team leader of the four ninjas call out.

"I second that vote."

"I third that vote."

"I fourth that vote."

"Iruka?" Hiruzen looks at the teacher.

"I agree with the votes."

"Effective tomorrow, Naruto is to graduate the academy." Hiruzen tells Iruka.

"Sandaime-sama, you didn't you tell me Naruto had four ANBU ninjas follow him? Was he ever in any real danger?" Iruka weakly asks.

"Never, we would have been able to stop any sort of life-threatening situation. Sandaime-sama asked us to watch, review and deal with the situation as needed. Naruto and you had everything handled." The leader tells them.

"What about the scroll?" Iruka wonders.

"It's a fake forbidden scroll Iruka, Naruto came to me after Ayame saw his mission list and notice something that was amiss." Hiruzen explains. "I told the forces that Naruto stole the scroll just to catch the traitor off guard."

"I see." Iruka softly smiles.

"Sandaime-sama, your orders?"

Hiruzen looks at the group of four. "Dismiss." Instantly, the four kneeling ninja's disperses in a puff of smoke.

"Iruka, how do you feel about the situation?"

"Naruto effectively delayed long enough for me to regain some strength when battling Mizuki. His skill set is poor but that possibile due to our lack of teaching. I feel as if he would quickly soak up any sort abilities once taught." Iruka explains.

"You may be right. Good work Iruka. Go get yourself checked out at the ward." Hiruzen tells him as he turns away leaving the area, leaving Iruka to his own thoughts.

* * *

Naruto stood in front of his door as the evening wind blew. Naruto wanted to knock on his door instead of rushing in, even though it's his own home.

After a few minutes of contemplating, Naruto turns the doorknob and opens his way in. Immediately, before getting his body through the door, a hand reached out and pulls him into a hug. "Welcome home Naruto!" She tells him.

Naruto quickly latches his arms around her, not wanting to let her go.

"How did you know I was outside the door?" Naruto confusedly asked.

"I heard you walk up the stairs, so I waited at the door. I told Lord third I would be here waiting for you, so I waited until you were ready to come inside. I'm glad you're safe." Ayame warmly tells him as she tears up into his hair.

"I'm only ok because of you Ayame!" Naruto whispers as he rubs his face into her stomach as he held her tighter.

As she let go of the hug, "Are you hungry?" she softly asks. Naruto immediately shook his head, so instead, she led him towards his bathroom. "Let's get you washed up then Naruto. You must be exhausted, I know I am." She tells him as she leads him into the bathroom.

Naruto glances as their connecting hands and blushes. Naruto, then quickly gives her an eye as he looks her up and down. Out of work clothes and into pajamas, noticing the cute little ramen symbols and ingredients.

Standing outside his bathroom as she leans against the door frame, Ayame patiently waits for Naruto to be done with his shower. She thought about the day, as she thinks about what Lord Third tells her in two very short words.

"Naruto knows."

Coming out the bathroom, completely clean and ready for bed, wearing his plain white striped pajamas. Naruto stretches his arms as he walks out the door. He notices quietly Ayame waiting.

"Sorry for taking so long." He apologizes.

"It's ok Naruto." She tells him as she takes his hand and leads him to bed.

Naruto looks at her in complete confusion. "I think I'll just take the couch." He suggests as she fixes the pillows.

"Be quiet and get into bed." Ayame commands as she lays on the inner bed closer towards the wall.

Naruto lays down beside her very close to the edge of the bed. Nervous about what is going on. 'Ayame never slept over before.' He thinks to himself.

Ayame grabs a hold of him and turns him around before pulling him into her. She slides an arm under his head while her other arm strokes his head. "I heard you know."

Naruto softly nods his head as he quietly breathes into her chest and softly places his arm around her waist. He realizes the situation now and understands what is going on.

There is an awkward silence. The only sounds are her ruffling his head and the two of them breathing.

"Did you always know?" Naruto quietly whispers.

"Mhmm."

"Did it ever worry you?" He softly mumbles.

"Never."

"Was you scared?" He quietly asks.

"Nope."

"Did you care?"

"About?"

"Me being the Kyuubi." Naruto grips Ayame tighter.

"Naruto, you are NOT the Kyuubi."

"How do you know?"

"I believed in your parents abilities." She quietly answers.

Naruto throws his head back to look at her in the face, his expression is in complete shock.

"You knew my parents!? Who are they!?" He slightly shouts.

She instantly pulls his head back towards her chest. "As of right now you are not ready to learn who they are. You cannot carry the responsibility of that knowledge just yet, I will tell you that they love you dearly."

"How can you say that!? All my life I been wondering who my parents are." Naruto tells her as tears begun to flow down his eyes.

"Naruto, do you trust me?" She seriously asks him as she continues to stroke the back of his head.

There's another awkward silence before Naruto answers her. "With my life!"

"Then trust me when I say when you are ready, you will know." She clearly tells him as she feels as he starts to slowly calm down.

Naruto quietly says "ok" before slowly falling asleep in her arms, clutching her like a lifeline.

 **"** Ayame."

"Hmm?"

"Thank you, for everything." Naruto finally tells her as he slowly falls into a much-needed sleep.

"Mhmm." She sounds out as they both pass out into the night.

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

Thus ends the background story. Pretty sure my fight scene sucked. I don't care too much for fight scenes anymore especially after I rewrote it a few times. Maybe the Ayame / Naruto interaction could add a little bit of work but I'm happy how it turned out, only took a couple of tries.

I could have expanded on the four years at the academy but I can't imagine much happening while Ayame works full time while Naruto sees her after school. I could only do Ayame, pranks and training for so long. Moving it along this way helps out.

I have a few ideas on how I want the story to flow now that Naruto is a genin and becoming of age.

 **Read / Critique / Review please!**


	5. Ninja Years : Ramen Containment

Disclaimer – See Chapter 1

Thanks to SilverLulaMoon for pointing out the Kyuubi topic. Because of pointing out that situation, it gives me an idea to properly clarify the warden / jailer theme with Hiruzen in this opening. Thanks, Silver!

This will be a shorter chapter than I want it to be just cause I have gotten some advice on how to improve my writing. See notes below for explanations.

* * *

 ***Knock knock***

"Five more minutes." Ayame calls out as she stirs in her sleep.

 ***Knock knock***

"Damn it Sasuke!" Naruto mumbles in his sleep.

 ***Knock knock***

"Naruto, tell them to go away." Ayame softly tells him as she stirs in her sleep.

"Go away." Naruto quietly replies as he cuddles back towards Ayame's chest

"Well now, I certainly did not expect this predicament." Hiruzen quietly calls out from the open window sill he is currently leaning against. Crouched down low to the ground as he rests his head upon one of his arms, quietly smoking his tobacco pipe. Hiruzen looks at the two kids as they were tangled up in each other bodies. Ayame had her left leg over his body, turned to the left as her chin rests on top of his head. Her left arm rests on her head and the pillow for extra support.

Naruto had one arm over Ayame's body while his face is smothered by Ayame's chest. Hiruzen is sure Naruto's head is cuddling her chest, but he's not that quite sure.

 ***Click, Snap***

"Wake up you two." Hiruzen calls out to them, Hiruzen watches the two stir just a little, before gripping each other that much tighter.

Hiruzen quickly summoned a kage bunshin inside of Naruto's home to wake them up.

Naruto and Ayame both sat up from their respective positions but her leg is still propped up from being on top of him made for a very compromising position. ***Click, Snap***

They stared at each other for a second before realizing that they slept together in the same bed.

"Gasps!" They stared at each other wide-eyed upon realization.

 ***Click, Snap***

They hear from the window. Naruto turns to Hiruzen and blinks a few times as he tries to gain focus in his vision, "What's with the camera Jiji."

With a forefinger pointed upward, Hiruzen clearly states. "Blackmail." And lightly chuckles as he takes a drag from his pipe.

Naruto stifled out a yawn. "Seriously?" Naruto said with such an exhausting expression.

"Yes, these pictures are quite good." Hiruzen states as he scrolls through the photos.

Naruto turns back to Ayame as she lets out a light yawn with a covered hand and he notices her morning bed hair. Her hair's a wild mess before his eyes trails downward and notices that her pajama top slightly came unbuttoned, giving him a clear view of her upper cleavage. A slight bit of blood started to work his way to his upper head giving him a nosebleed.

"I'll go wash up now." Ayame slowly untangles herself from Naruto, and slightly drags her daze form to the bathroom as she fails to notice the slight blood coming from Naruto's nose.

"We need to talk." Hiruzen states as he enters the home as Ayame disappears into the bathroom.

"About?" Naruto asks as he stretches.

"The Kyuubi." Hiruzen seriously states.

"I see, can Ayame be with me for this?" Naruto worriedly asks.

"Of course, I'm positive after yesterday's events, you should have some questions for me." Hiruzen tells him opens the fridge to pull out a tray of eggs and bread. "You know, I half expected for your place to be, messier." Hiruzen tells Naruto as he looks around the single bedroom home.

"I'm pretty sure it would be messier if Ayame doesn't come over so frequently to help me clean up, and by help, I mean yell." Naruto tells him as he let out a small yawn as he joins Hiruzen at the dining table.

"Ayame's good for you, Naruto." Hiruzen chuckles at Naruto.

"I think so too." Naruto replies as he lay his head down on his table, letting out another yawn.

Few minutes later, the door opens and out comes Ayame, dress in her work clothing, as she uses a spare towel to dry her hair. "Oh Sandaime-sama, you're still here."

"Yes, please, have a seat." Hiruzen gestures with his left hand to a seat closest to Naruto as he places a plate breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast for the each of them.

Ayame notices the tone in Sandaime and expects it to be that serious of a conversation.

"Yesterday, you have learned the burden you must carry throughout your life. I'm here to clear up any questions you may have. Let's start off with what you know and I will fill in the blanks."

Naruto thought about it and how he wants to word everything. "I know that Iruka-sensei fought tooth and nail to keep me alive and protected while I wallow in my despair. I know that I fought Mizuki hard yesterday after he was telling me that I'm the Kyuubi reincarnate. I know that I learn the kage bunshin Mizuki, and yet I could make them on a higher magnitude than Iruka-sensei and Mizuki." Naruto looks at Ayame and holds out his hand, which she quickly grasps. "I learned that I have parents who loves me even though I do not know who they are. I know that I'm not actually the Kyuubi reincarnate."

Hiruzen quickly notices the hand gesture and warmly smiles at them. "Good, it saves me a lot of trouble breaking everything down. For starters, let me explain Naruto, you are not the Kyuubi in no way, shape or form. You are your own person and you have your own abilities and you are what we call a jinchuriki, a human sacrifice." Naruto looks at him, giving him a chance to explain. "The Kyuubi never really died, but was sealed."

Naruto looks at Hiruzen in confusion. "Sealed?"

"Here, I'll explain it this way." Hiruzen states as he gets up to go to the pantry to pull a cup of ramen.

Hiruzen then lays out all the items in form. Ramen cup, a ramen bar and a hot cup of water. "This ramen bar is the Kyuubi, this cup is you and the water is the seal. As the seal sits with the Kyuubi, over time the seal will gradually weaken the Kyuubi by accessing the Kyuubi's chakra, taking it and spreading all throughout your body.

"So you mean I'm just the container with a seal, stealing all its chakra and deliciousness." Naruto exclaims.

"In a sense, but I doubt the Kyuubi would be delicious." Hiruzen says with a chuckle as he puffs on his pipe.

"Ok, I have a different question. Out of every child here in Konoha, why me?" Naruto asks as he tightens his grip around Ayame, who only looks at him with worried eyes.

"No one could really answer that besides the Yondaime, for all I know, it's possible because you were the only child born that night, you were the only one available, lots of factors, Naruto." Hiruzen explains.

"The technique I learned from Mizuki and Iruka-sensei. What exactly is the kage bunshin?" Naruto wonders.

"The kage bunshin is the advance version of the bunshin. A jonin technique created by our late Nidaime, who creates corporal clones that can be used for espionage and other things." Hiruzen explains.

"If it's such an advanced technique, how come I was able to learn it with such ease?"

"It's not a jonin technique due to how hard it is to learn but the complexity that revolves around its abilities. You see, the kage bunshin takes one's current chakra and splits it into two, four or sixteen. Just varies on how much chakra he or she have."

Naruto looks at Hiruzen in confusion once again. While Ayame knows this is way above her head, she's just here for support.

"Think about I this way Naruto, this uneaten toast." Hiruzen holds up a loaf of bread before placing it down on the plate. "This toast is your chakra, now if you create one kage bunshin." Hiruzen did something that slices the bread in half. Now there are two of you with the same chakra split evenly." Hiruzen touches both halves of the bread. Now there are four of you of the same whole. "Now sixteen of you but still all part of the same whole. See how the bread got smaller as the full shape still is one whole slice of bread?"

Naruto nods, "So the kage bunshin basically just splits whatever chakra we have into that many clones we create. For someone with a large amount of chakra, such as myself, they basically become cannon fodder that can wear down an opponent in the long run."

"That's one way of putting it, yes."

"Let's say I do create sixteen kage bunshins, what happens when one of the sixteen disperses?" Naruto questions.

"Good question Naruto. That kage bunshin's leftover useable chakra will be dispersed among the fifteen."

"Ohh." Naruto seems to be quite amazed. "You said this is a jonin technique, how come Iruka-sensei and Mizuki know about it?" Naruto questions.

"The technique in its self isn't complicated to learn, its only two combined seals and a baseline of chakra. Most chunin can learn it but not every chunin can do it. For a shinobi's chakra, should fall below a certain level, could mean exhaustion or even death, which is why most normal ninjas wait until their chakra is adequate level, which would generally be at the jonin rank." Hiruzen explains.

"What about me?" Naruto slightly shouts as he jumps up. Ayame looks at Naruto before jerking him back down.

Ayame looks at Naruto answers for Hiruzen with a slight giggle. "Naruto, you're not exactly normal, are you?"

"I guess you got a point there. Because I'm badass." Naruto says as he puffs his chest.

Only to get flicked in the forehead from Ayame. "Language."

"Sorry." Naruto apologizes.

"Well, Naruto, do you have any other questions?" Hiruzen asks as he takes a puff from his pipe.

"Do you think I could get the villagers to see me? I mean for who I am and not because of the Kyuubi?" Naruto asks as he looks down at his knees.

"If you work hard enough and by staying on the right track, I'm positive everyone will see you as Uzumaki Naruto!" Hiruzen tells him with a warm smile.

"Thanks, Jiji, I promise that I'll do all that I can to make everyone proud." Naruto glows with pride.

"I know you will, now that we're done here, I have to head back to the office for more meetings and paperwork." Hiruzen says as he heads towards the door.

"Jiji, thanks for taking the time out of your day to explain it to me." Naruto says as he lets go of Ayame's hand to give Hiruzen a hug.

"Of course Naruto, my door will always be open for you." Hugs him back before leaving out the door.

Once the door closes, Naruto turns around with a large cheesy grin, whips out the camera from the morning. "Gotcha." Tosses it up in the air and catches it as it lands.

"Is that the digital camera from this morning?" Ayame asks as she gathers up the dishes.

"Yep." Naruto says as he turns on the camera before face faulting. "Nope."

Ayame comes and grabs the digital camera from him. On the first picture is showing Hiruzen pulling an eyelid down while holding a scroll "next picture" and on that photo, is a monkey's butt with its tail holding a scroll that said "Better luck next time."

Ayame loudly laughs as she's joined with Naruto.

Hiruzen walks away with a smile on his face as he puffs his pipe while making his way back towards Hokage tower.

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

I recently joined a discord of FF writers and I posted my story up for critique. They mention that my story is rather dialogued heavy and I should expand on paragraphs, fixing tone-deaf and other situations.

Hopefully, by the next chapter I could rework my writing to the point it's more reader-friendly. This chapter is what I had written before their advice. Thanks to Jack/ and NXSE for the major advice.

I'm also working on a Shizune / Naruto 3 – chapter story that I think is full of fluff. Hopefully, I could build the characters well enough to make it enjoyable as I rewrite that one as well.

Once again, sorry for the small chapter.


End file.
